We all know that successful products solve problems, but how do you go from identifying a problem to launching the solution? How does the creation of something like Bittorent lead to the launch of Spotify or Hulu? The answers to these questions have many parts, but one essential thread they share is the use of visionary thinking.
Visionary thinking, also commonly called conceptual thinking, is simply connecting abstract concepts to new insights & ideas. This practice aims to "free your mind" and let you ponder a topic in an entirely unbounded way. How can visionary thinking be incorporated into the product development process? Let's talk through two core product development phases where visionary thinking can be uniquely applied: ideation and execution/development.
Beginning with the ideation phase, visionary thinking has tremendous value in allowing a team to push themselves to truly understand a problem at its core and ideate all potential solutions. However, this only works in an improv environment, as I like to call it. This environment utilizes the "yes, and…" method commonly found in improv, where participants collectively expand on the line of thinking behind every idea. While this practice of free sharing of ideas often leads to wildly unachievable solutions, by the end, you have a large number of highly varied views and a clearer idea of the big picture. You start by spitballing from the root problem while pulling inspiration from related and unrelated areas. Whatever connections your team can make are valid and should be expanded upon, regardless of industry, sector, or a link to something fiction. The secret to the "optimal solution" will be almost always be spread throughout these ideas.
Fostering an unbounded environment of pure creativity and innovation is challenging, but it's also crucial to the innovation step.
Visionary thinking becomes less abstract and more focused on design thinking once you progress into execution/development*.* Design thinking is the process in which the functional requirements of the design problem are extracted and transformed into descriptions of solution concepts. We understand the problem and have described a potential solution by this point. Now it's time to shift our focus towards putting your users first by thinking about what requirements they will demand from your product to satisfy their needs. This execution step isn't necessarily just "writing code"; it's also about mapping out user flows, creating architecture decision records and other technical design documents, and generally optimizing your solution for your target audience.