When people think about a UX vision, they often imagine a short, aspirational statement.
But for me, a vision is only valuable if it’s operationalized — if it gives teams clear priorities and leaders clear outcomes to measure.

This is how I approached defining and executing the UX vision for two products: Suzy (B2B insights platform) and Crowdtap (B2C community).

Step 1 – Listen Before Leading

I began by gathering input from multiple sources:

Stakeholder business goals – What leadership needed to achieve in the next 12–18 months.
Consumer sentiment – Pain points and aspirations directly from users.
Design debt – The gaps, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies uncovered in product audits.

By combining these perspectives, I avoided a “design-only” vision and ensured the foundation was cross-functional from day one.

Step 2 – Craft Focused Vision Statements

With the insights synthesized, I created two tailored vision statements — one for each product:

Suzy:

Empower users of all skill levels to create high-quality surveys and uncover actionable insights through intuitive, transparent, and innovative tools that drive confident, informed decisions.

Crowdtap:

Create an inclusive, rewarding experience that motivates meaningful participation, fosters trust, and builds long-term community engagement.

These weren’t just feel-good phrases. They were the anchor points that every future decision had to align with.

Step 3 – Translate Vision into Strategic Pillars

I distilled the vision into five pillars — broad enough to guide multiple teams, specific enough to prioritize work:

Guided First Steps – Remove uncertainty from onboarding and navigation.
Task Focus & Efficiency – Streamline creation flows, reduce cognitive load.
Insight at a Glance – Make dashboards true decision-making hubs.
Humanized Engagement – Use AI, community features, and personalization to deepen participation.
Consistency & Scalability – Create alignment across web and app experiences.

Step 4 – Define Tactical Initiatives with Measurable Outcomes

For each pillar, I identified tactical projects tied to measurable impact.

  
    From Vision to Action: Pillars, Initiatives, and Expected Impact
    
        Pillar
        Initiative
        Expected Impact Metric
      
        Guided First Steps
        Tailored onboarding with “Get Started” hub
        ↑ First-time task completion
      
        Task Focus & Efficiency
        Hide nav during creation; structured left/right editor
        ↓ Task abandonment
      
        Insight at a Glance
        Data-rich dashboards with key metrics & trends
        ↑ Return visits
      
        Humanized Engagement
        AI narration/video previews; voice response
        ↑ Engagement quality
      
        Humanized Engagement
        Community leaderboards & streak rewards
        ↑ Monthly active users
      
        Consistency & Scalability
        Cross-platform design system adoption
        ↓ UX inconsistencies

Step 5 – Phase the Work to Avoid Overwhelm

Not every initiative could launch at once. I mapped a Now / Next / Future approach:

Now (0–3 mo): Navigation simplification, onboarding hub, dashboard MVP.
Next (3–6 mo): Creation flow redesign, AI previews, basic community features.
Future (6+ mo): AI quality check, advanced personalization, global survey cloning.

The Result

By the time I presented this to leadership, it wasn’t just a “vision deck.” It was a clear bridge from high-level strategy to execution-ready initiatives, each linked to a metric.

The team could see how their day-to-day work fit into the bigger picture. Leadership could see the business impact. And users? They could feel the improvements almost immediately.

Key Takeaway:
A UX vision should inspire, yes — but more importantly, it should direct action.
Because in the end, the best UX vision isn’t about what you want to be.
It’s about how you’ll get there.