What sets successful startups apart from the rest? It's not just their product or service – it's the clarity and conviction behind their mission and vision.
At the core of every startup is a purpose that sparked its inception. Whether it's improving an existing solution or capitalizing on a new opportunity, startup founders are presented with a blank canvas to define their purpose. To effectively communicate this purpose to employees, investors, partners, and customers, a mission and vision statement is a powerful instrument for founders to inspire and unite key stakeholders.
At OAK'S LAB, we work with early-stage startups of varying maturity levels. We understand the critical importance of defining clear and concise vision and mission statements from the outset. That's why our product development methodology, the OAK’S LAB WAY, prioritizes this as one of the first activities for our teams to focus on. By doing so, we're able to ensure we build a product that aligns with the startup's purpose and drives us toward success.
While the terms "mission" and "vision" are closely connected, they are actually two distinct concepts. The mission statement outlines the present purpose of the startup, defining what the startup currently does and for whom. On the other hand, the vision statement is a more forward-thinking statement that describes the future aspirations of the startup, outlining what the business wants to achieve in the long run.
Crafting clear and inspiring mission and vision statements is crucial for startups and can even become a competitive advantage. It provides an opportunity for founders to clearly define their startup's purpose and communicate their vision of the future. When done right, the mission and vision statements can excite potential investors, attract top talent, and most importantly, align the entire team around a shared purpose. It serves as a unifying force that guides the startup’s decisions and actions, helping everyone work together towards a common goal.
Creating a powerful mission statement isn’t easy. I’ve personally gone through the exercise myself with OAK’S LAB, and it’s a real challenge to distill a big business idea down to two sentences while keeping it inspiring. I’m sharing a few tips from my experience to guide founders as they go through this process themselves, as well as some examples of the mission and vision statements of other companies to get inspired and hopefully help you create something exceptional.
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Some questions you can answer together:
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Defining powerful mission and vision statements is only the first step. The real challenge lies in making sure that they guide the team on a daily basis. One effective way to achieve this is to connect them to the development of the product. At OAK’S LAB, we encourage our teams to create a Product Vision Board in collaboration with the startup founder.
The Product Vision Board is a tool that breaks down the startup's product into key areas that guide the team throughout the product development lifecycle. It draws inspiration from the startup's mission and vision and captures important details such as the target audience, user needs, key product features, and business goals. This tool is particularly useful during the early stages of a startup as it ensures everyone is aligned on its purpose, audience, and goals.
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To create an effective Product Vision Board, we recommend answering the following:
By connecting the mission and vision to the development of the product, teams can ensure that they are working towards a common purpose and that their efforts are aligned with the startup's goals.
One of the first activities our empowered product development teams work on is ensuring that the startup founder has a sound mission and vision statement in place. The exercise is challenging, but if done well, it can unite everyone in the startup and serve as twin north stars to follow throughout the startup’s journey.
In our next article about the OAK’S LAB WAY, we will be sharing how to create effective business and product goals that are aligned with the mission and vision statement. Stay tuned.
