Vistaly

Pros

My team and I have deep experience with product management and executive planning practices, and Vistaly seamlessly fit our existing models around what matters and what doesn't in that space. We started using it early on, and have been increasingly impressed with both the pace of development and the types of new features that have rolled out. It's only going to get better.

Cons

There isn't a mobile option... yet, which is a bit of a snag when I want to check something and I am on my phone. But I've heard the team is working on it. It can't be an easy problem to solve due to the nature of the tool. But yeah, if I had any complaint, that'd be it. And it's not really a big deal.

Pros

With Vistaly, we structure, model, and visualise how the outcome, discovery, and delivery spaces connect. It really helps to put Continuous Discovery Habits into practice.

Cons

Really I'm struggling to think of any con, other than it can be quite addictive when you get absorbed into the work! Vistaly really empowers strategic work.

Pros

It is a tailor-made tool to enable Continuous Discovery Habits method and the benefits of following CDH in product work becomes possible partially thanks to Vistaly.

Cons

The experience modifying the maps could be a bit more fluid e.g. more drag and drag support.

Pros

Vistaly has become a game changer for our team in solidifying the usage of Opportunity solution trees and other aspects of continuous discovery. it became essential in strategic alignment between Product Development and other teams. We are looking to take it further now and place the overall company strategy work in Vistaly, as well as further incorporate it in day to day work. High touch support is absolutely phenomenal, so is the passion of the founding team to promote and enable best product development practises.

Cons

nothing to mention - for such an early stage the application is convenient to use, constantly evolving and observations/wishes/requirements we share get added into the backlog of the team instantly. This is quite remarkable.

Pros

Vistaly helps you think clearly about what you're doing, and makes communicating that rationale easier and more honest.

Cons

Vistaly still falls short a little bit on nuts and bolts project management usability, like stack ranking or communicating deadline driven prioritization. Then again, I don't think that's what it's trying to achieve.

Pros

The software is opinionated, it only let's you do things in a certain way and I think that's great in this case. It follows the teaching of [sensitive content hidden] which matches with our product philosophy. You are kind of automatically using best practices through the software. Users are guided to follow a certain path, which helps a lot, especially in this still relatively new field of product development.

Cons

For managing the role/rights of a user, you need to uninvite the user and re-invite him with the new access rights.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Vistaly

Pros

The ability to visualize top down from company goals to product solutions is an invaluable asset to managing across your product. Very intuitive and easy to use even as your opportunity solution trees becomes broad and deep. Vistaly is a massively helpful tool in communicating the connection between your strategy, discovery, and delivery.

Cons

At times it can be difficult to juggle the level of detail to add in Vistaly vs your other tools and processes. (weekly updates, PRDs, etc.) I think planning up front can be helpful to this.

Pros

Vistaly has not only been able to visualize the way I think about the product discovery and execution process - but it's served as a tool to help me improve the way I do product management. It's both a tool and a teacher, providing the structure to a world of unstructured thinking.

Cons

The thing that was difficult about Vistaly was getting it setup with the historical context. It did take a little bit to go through and map everything out that has already been done - but... that's kind of the point, so it was painful in the beginning but worth it in the end.

Pros

Vistaly has been a gamechanger for how our Product Team handles the discovery process and communicates with stakeholders. It has not only given us a place to record opportunities and ideas as they come up, but it allows us to clearly communicate with stakeholders what we are pursuing and why.

Cons

At the moment, our team is very new to Vistaly. The only challenges we've had have related to not knowing the full functionality of it or how to integrate it into our workflow, but the team has been incredibly responsive and Vistaly is becoming a key part of how we work.

Pros

Vistaly offers enough flexibility that the workspaces can be catered towards different use cases, from very high strategic levels, down to the nitty gritty of a product squad. At the same time the structure it provides keeps not only product people, but all stakeholders, engaged and more importantly accountable for the story that is being told.
I especially love the story mode to visualize the context of a solution and being able to use it as a basis for conversations with stakeholders from different contexts of the organization, as well as the integrated Guide to get non-product people started with the concept of an OST and how to best utilise it for their purpose.

On a more personal note: the contact with anybody from Vistaly has always been more than pleasant and engaging. Support for any type of challenge while onboarding has been swift and reliable.

Cons

Many functionalities are still evolving and emerging so navigation and handling is not quite as intuitive in some areas as it could be (or evolve to be).

Pros

Its comprehensiveness and flexibility. It is a powerful, visual way to show the cascading nature of product strategy with what is built and planned.

Cons

Some learning curve, and it requires you to educate stakeholders on OSTs, which can be a difficult concept to fully grasp.

Pros

* Fantastic UX
* Built with next-generation product management in mind
* Lightning fast development and support teams

Cons

* Reporting functionality is fairly basic
* Small number of integrations

Pros

It is tailor-made to work with continuous discovery model. It is truly a one stop shop. We have moved away from using any other management tool.

Cons

As the opportunity tree expands, visually it becomes a bit challenging. Creative thinking on visual layout would be a huge plus.

Pros

While whiteboards are excellent for initial idea generation, they fall short for structured development and long-term project management. Vistaly offers a solution that retains the creative freedom of a whiteboard but adds the organizational capabilities of a database.

Cons

Minor quibble: Vistaly's design is universally useful but its nomenclature is very oriented towards the product management use case context specifically.