Lessons from Resolve: How to
unite teams and create a foundation
for the future with Product Vision Sprint
Lessons from Resolve: How to
unite teams and create a foundation
for the future with Product Vision Sprint
Envisioning the future can be challenging, and knowing in which direction to go, even more so. One way that companies are tackling these challenges and finding clarity is through the Product Vision Sprint. In this article, we share the success story of Resolve and their Product Vision, through which they managed to unite their product teams and define a direction for their product suite Resolve Employee.
A world where Purchase-To-Pay and Planning-to-Payroll is so automated that no eyes are needed
A bit of background
The Product Vision Sprint in short
Envisioning the future can be challenging, and knowing in which direction to go, even more so. One way that companies are tackling these challenges and finding clarity is through the Product Vision Sprint. In this article, we share the success story of Resolve and their Product Vision, through which they managed to unite their product teams and define a direction for their product suite Resolve Employee.
The North Star Framework in short
Before hearing from Resolve, let’s have a quick walkthrough of the Product Vision Sprint process. The Product Vision Sprint is a 1-day workshop where we look at the world from the eyes of the customer and create vision & mission statements with a compelling story to deliver them. These things don’t materialise out of thin air, of course. Teams need to be immersed in all aspects of their business, and work step by step towards an inspiring, unique vision that excites the employees.
Part of what makes the Product Vision Sprint so powerful is the preparations made by the team, where they analyse their business, market(s), product usage, customer feedback and current strategy, and conduct strategic narrative interviews with customers. All of this information is then used in the workshop in order to ideate on opportunities to prioritise, outline the strategic narrative and define the mission and vision statements.
After the workshop, the team goes through a vision critique survey and gathers feedback from colleagues and stakeholders. This is followed by iterative feedback and a final meeting to ensure the team is on the right track.
If you want to learn more about the Product Vision Sprint, or would like support in defining your vision, mission and strategic narrative, you can find more information here.
With that said, let’s hear from Magnus L., Product Director at Resolve.
Could you tell us a bit about your new Product Vision? How does it set the stage for Resolve as a company in the future?
Due to the nature of Resolve's business and products, we felt the most important thing to align on was the company-level vision. We then used the same process for creating the product vision for Resolve Employee.
Resolve’s new company vision is “A world where Purchase-To-Pay and Planning-to-Payroll is so automated that no eyes are needed”. What this means is that customers and users of Visma software should be able to focus on their core purpose, be it a hospital, entrepreneur or a municipality, while knowing that administrative tasks are handled automatically.
This vision sets the stage for our two product suites: Resolve Employee and Resolve Business. Resolve Employee targets the Planning-to-Payroll process, and covers employee planning, time and absence, expense management and payroll. Resolve Business targets the purchase-to-pay process, including purchasing, invoice handling, bookkeeping and payments.
What made you and your team decide that it was time to update the Vision?
We saw the need for a more clear product direction that could set the boundaries for which product bets (innovations) to make in the coming years.
We also saw the need to have a more clear definition of what Resolve is, and what Resolve is not, that we could use to align ourselves and external stakeholders. We felt that a Product Vision was the perfect tool to achieve this.
How would you describe the impact on your teams and company so far?
So far it has been very positive. We used the output (the product vision) from the sprint to create a 2-3 year product strategy for one of our product suites (Resolve Employee). We have also created a vision movie that articulates the vision. The result of this has been that the product teams can work more efficiently with discovery, as they have a more clear strategic direction.
We have also gotten feedback from people in Resolve that the Vision movie has inspired them. We have also got feedback from our board and partners that the vision makes it very clear what Resolve is about, and what future we are working towards.
What are some successes and challenges you have experienced in the process of creating and implementing your new Product Vision?
As preparation for the Vision Sprint we interviewed a lot of Visma companies (which are our customers) that gave us a lot of insights about their needs for the coming years. After processing these insights, the direction we should pursue to serve these needs started to become relatively clear already at an early stage. Doing a lot of market research is definitely something I would recommend to others. The outcome of the sprint will only be as good as the insights you bring into it.
A challenge we faced during the sprint was to decide on how specific/narrow we should make the vision. Some of us wanted to make the vision more narrow as we felt it was necessary to create a clear picture of what Resolve was about. Others felt that this would place unnecessary limitations on creativity and innovation. It took some weeks of discussions to finalise something that everyone could agree on, but in the end it was worth it.
Involving a lot of people in a Vision Sprint can also feel a bit scary as a leader, as it means giving up some control of the output. Dealing with this worry was a challenge for me, personally, as a product leader. However, I believe that in order to build a good vision you need to have a team of people with different competence and perspectives that do not necessarily agree with you. So in the end I’m very happy that I overcame my worries.
Would you recommend the Product Vision Sprint to other companies? What advice would you give companies that are considering creating a new Product Vision?
I would definitely recommend the Product Vision Sprint! This workshop is offered by a team that works full time with helping companies with designing product vision and strategy, so it is very likely that they can bring something to the table that you otherwise wouldn’t have considered. The process is very structured and easy to follow, they are good at facilitating the discussions, and they provide valuable insights and feedback along the way. I’m very happy with Resolve’s vision, and I think that being part of the Product Vision Sprint played an important role in achieving that outcome.
My recommendations would be to prepare well, be open, and bring in a diverse team of people that can challenge each other. Don’t be the leader that is so afraid of change that you only bring in people who have the same opinions as you.
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Thank you Magnus and Resolve for sharing!
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