Describe the problem (or opportunity) you’re trying to solve. Why is it important to our users and our business? What insights are you operating on? And if relevant, what problems are you not intending to solve?
Describe briefly the approach you’re taking to solve this problem. This should be enough for the reader to imagine possible solution directions and get a very rough sense of the scope of this project. (e.g., if “The Problem” was engagement in the design process from non-designers, “The Approach” might be a feed which surfaces work that's relevant to them.)
What does success look like? What metrics are you intending to move? Explain why these metrics are important if not obvious.
Show some mocks of the experience. Link to any other documentation as necessary. In general, it’s helpful to organize these around certain user journeys / use cases. Show enough of a clickthrough where people can walk away with a reasonable understanding of how the product works.
Give an overview of what we’re building. Provide an organized list of features, with priorities if relevant. Discuss what you’re not building (or saving for a future release) if relevant.
Milstone v1 — Short title
Feature 1
As a user I will like to...
Feature 2
As a user I will like to...
Milstone v2 — Short title
Feature 3
As a user I will like to...
Feature 4
As a user I will like to...
Keep track of open issues / key decisions here. Sometimes, certain decisions are made that might feel controversial; document these here so people know that the discussions have happened and there’s strong awareness of the tradeoffs.
| Item | Answer/Decisions | Status |
|---|---|---|
| What if... | We will... | ✅ |
| What if... | - | ❓ |
Links to a technical design doc
Identify any relevant milestones (e.g., a Dogfood or Beta milestone) that people should know about. Make sure to show when you’re expecting to publicly launch, too.
| Date | Milestone | Audience | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, May 4 | Dogfood 🐶 | Internal employees only | Testing internally |
| Mon, May 11 | Beta 👥 | Early cohort of 100 customers | Getting user feedback |
| Tue, May 19 | Launch! 🚀 | Gradual ramp over the day to 100% of all users | It's the big day! |
Make sure you answer all of the questions below and involve necessary stakeholders.
| Area | Question | Answer | Instructions if "Yes” (or unsure) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support | Will new learning material be needed (or updates to existing documentation)? Help Center articles? Images/GIFs? YouTube videos? Plugin documentation? | - | - |
| Support | Will this feature require new support processes, like saved replies, new tags to track feature changes, or training the support team on new products/changes? | - | - |
| Growth & Data | Have you implemented sufficient tracking in order to measure success, risks and impact on user behavior for the new feature? | - | - |
| Growth & Data | Could this impact Growth numbers? (E.g., impact to NUX, UI changes to CTAs.) | - | - |
| Growth & Data | Are we turning this feature on for everyone immediately (versus a gradual rollout) | - | - |
| Marketing | Are we running a Beta for this? | - | - |
| Marketing | Do we need an onboarding experience? | - | - |
| Entreprise | Will this be available only in certain tiers (Pro or Org)? | - | - |
| Entreprise | Is this a new action that should be included in the Activity Logs? | - | - |
| Platform | Are you introducing new functionality that we’d want to add to our Web APIs? | - | - |
| Platform | Could this break any existing features? | - | - |
| Security & Privacy | Are we collecting any data that we did not already, or are we using any data in a manner that we did not already use it in? | - | - |
| Security & Privacy | Are you introducing new data models, or exposing new API end points? Or are you changing anything to do with Authentication, Sign in, or Sign up? Is data flowing to a new vendor or outside of prod ? | - | - |
Optional: Include an FAQ when helpful to answer high level questions so it is easier for people to grasp the point of the project without getting lost in the details of product definition.
Question 1
Answer 1
Question 2
Answer 2