Product Vision & Systems Thinking

This skill exists to stop: the feature factory — building whatever the loudest customer or executive asks for, until the product is a patchwork nobody can explain — and its cousin, deleting a feature because internal click data was low.

Quick start

Paste a backlog or a "delete this feature" request and get back: a one-sentence vision check, each request reframed as the user question it answers, a ripple-effect map for any removal, and the North Star the roadmap serves.

🤖 0. HOW TO USE (agent workflow)

A. Vision check: can the team state, in one sentence, what core value the product delivers to whom over the next 3–5 years? If not, draft it before any roadmap talk. Then draw the ecosystem map — every actor who touches the product (end user, operator, partner, admin, support), not just the main screen. B. Reframe requests as questions: for every feature request, write the user's question it answers ("how do I…?"). Requests with no question behind them go to the parking lot. C. Ripple check before removal: never delete or change a feature on internal usage data alone — map who else depends on its output, then ask real users outside the building. D. Design maturity: locate the org on the Design Ladder (styling → process → strategy) and name the next rung; don't ask for strategic design from a team still doing styling. Standard output: one-sentence vision · ecosystem map · questions-behind-requests table · ripple-effect map for any proposed removal · the one North Star the roadmap serves.

1. Danish Design Ladder (where design sits in the org)

Level 1 Non-design (function only) → Level 2 Styling (logo, packaging at the end) → Level 3 Process (design shapes flows and systems: design system, consistent journeys) → Level 4 Strategy (design discovers new business — e.g. a heavyweight photo tool spinning out a focused product for professionals who barely touched the original). Most SMEs sit at level 1–2; the leap to 3 is a process change, not a hire.