# Module 04: Product Brief

## Lesson 4: How WDS Makes This Great

**The unique features that ensure excellence**

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## The Human-in-the-Loop Thinking Partnership

Before we dive into the features, let's talk about what makes WDS fundamentally different: the **human-in-the-loop thinking partnership** approach inherited from the BMad methodology.

**This is where you first experience writing together with AI.**

Most AI tools work in one of two ways:
- **AI replaces you:** The AI does everything, you just approve or reject
- **AI takes orders:** You tell the AI exactly what to do, it executes

**WDS works differently:** You and Saga collaborate as thinking partners.

**You bring:**
- Vision and creative insight
- Domain expertise and context
- Strategic goals and priorities
- Understanding of your users

**Saga brings:**
- Structure and methodology
- The right questions at the right time
- Best practices and frameworks
- Documentation and formatting

**Together you create something neither could create alone:**
- You stay in strategic thinking mode
- Saga captures and structures your insights
- You see the document building in real-time
- Saga reflects back to confirm understanding
- You refine and clarify together
- The result is truly yours, just better articulated

**This isn't AI doing the work for you. This is AI helping you think more clearly and capture your thinking more effectively.**

When you activate Saga for the Product Brief, you're not filling out a form or prompting an AI. You're having a conversation with a thinking partner who helps you clarify what's in your head and ensures nothing important gets missed.

This is the BMad way. This is the WDS way. And this is where you first experience what "writing together" actually means.

---

## The Old Way vs The WDS Way

**The Old Way:**

1. Research what should go in a product brief
2. Find templates and try to adapt them
3. Stare at blank page wondering where to start (paralysis)
4. Schedule meetings with stakeholders to gather information
5. Take notes during meetings (hope you captured everything)
6. Try to synthesize notes into coherent document
7. Format the document properly
8. Send for review, wait for feedback
9. Revise based on feedback
10. Finally have a document (that's probably already outdated)

**The challenge:** You're doing everything alone - the thinking, the structure, the writing, the formatting. It's exhausting and you're never quite sure if you got it right.

**The WDS Way:**

1. Activate Saga: `@wds-saga project-brief`
2. Have a natural conversation answering questions
3. Saga writes the document as you talk
4. Review and refine together
5. Done - professional Product Brief ready to use

**The difference:** You have a thinking partner who ensures you cover what matters, structures your thinking clearly, and captures it professionally. The result is better because you're collaborating with someone who knows the methodology.

---

## Feature 1: AI-Guided Discovery

**The Problem:** Blank page paralysis. You know you need a Product Brief, but where do you start? What questions should you answer? What might you be forgetting?

**The WDS Solution:** Saga guides you through the process with the right questions in the right order.

**How it works:**

Saga asks questions that spark insight:
- "What's your vision for this product?"
- "Who are you building this for?"
- "How will you know it's successful?"
- "What else exists in this space?"
- "What constraints should we be aware of?"

**Why this matters:**
- No blank page paralysis - Saga knows what to ask
- No missed elements - Saga has a checklist
- No research needed - Saga knows the methodology
- No formatting decisions - Saga structures it properly

**What you gain:** Confidence that you're covering what matters, guided by proven methodology

---

## Feature 2: Conversational, Not Forms

**The Problem:** Traditional templates feel like filling out tax forms. You switch between thinking and documenting, losing flow and insight.

**The WDS Solution:** Natural dialogue where you think out loud and Saga captures the insights.

**How it works:**

You talk naturally:
- "I'm building this because I see families struggling with..."
- "The main users are parents who..."
- "Success looks like reducing their stress and..."

Saga listens, reflects, and confirms:
- "So you're seeing families struggle with coordination?"
- "The stress comes from unclear responsibilities?"
- "Let me capture that in the vision section..."

**Why this matters:**
- No context switching between thinking and writing
- Natural flow of conversation reveals insights
- Saga reflects back to confirm understanding
- You stay in strategic thinking mode

**What you gain:** Clear thinking captured accurately, with natural flow that reveals deeper insights

---

## Feature 3: Structured Output

**The Problem:** Even when you know what to say, formatting it properly takes time. Headers, bullets, sections, consistency - it all adds up.

**The WDS Solution:** Saga writes the document as you talk, with proper structure and formatting automatically.

**How it works:**

As you answer questions, Saga:
- Writes content in the right sections
- Formats with proper headers and bullets
- Maintains consistent structure
- Ensures completeness

You see the document building in real-time:
```markdown
## Vision

[Saga writes your vision as you describe it]

## Positioning

**Target:** [Saga captures who it's for]
**Value:** [Saga captures the problem]
**Differentiation:** [Saga captures what's unique]
```

**Why this matters:**
- No formatting decisions to make
- No restructuring needed
- No consistency issues
- Professional output automatically

**What you gain:** Professional structure that makes the brief useful and easy to reference

---

## Feature 4: Built-in Best Practices

**The Problem:** How do you know if your success criteria are good? Are your constraints specific enough? Did you miss anything important?

**The WDS Solution:** Saga applies best practices automatically, prompting you when something needs refinement.

**How it works:**

**SMART Goal Validation:**
- You: "We want to increase engagement"
- Saga: "Let's make that measurable - by how much and by when?"
- You: "40% increase in daily active users within 3 months"
- Saga: "Perfect - that's specific, measurable, and time-bound"

**Constraint Checklist:**
- Saga: "Let's check constraints you might have missed..."
- "Have you considered accessibility requirements?"
- "What about localization needs?"
- "Any regulatory compliance to consider?"

**Completeness Check:**
- Saga reviews each section
- Prompts for missing elements
- Ensures nothing critical was forgotten
- Validates that answers are clear

**Why this matters:**
- No need to learn methodology first
- No wondering if you missed something
- No weak criteria or vague statements
- Professional quality automatically

**What you gain:** Built-in excellence through proven best practices and methodology

---

## Feature 5: Two Levels of Depth

**The Problem:** Different projects need different levels of depth. One size doesn't fit all.

**The WDS Solution:** Choose your depth based on your needs.

**Simplified Brief (15-20 minutes):**
- Core essentials only
- Vision, positioning, users, success, constraints
- Perfect for MVPs and getting started
- Can expand later if needed

**Complete Brief (30-45 minutes):**
- Comprehensive strategic foundation
- Includes competitive landscape, detailed stakeholders
- Perfect for complex projects
- Full strategic clarity

**How to choose:**

**Use Simplified when:**
- ✅ Building an MVP
- ✅ Working solo or small team
- ✅ Want to start with essentials
- ✅ Can refine as you learn

**Use Complete when:**
- ✅ Complex project with many stakeholders
- ✅ Significant investment at stake
- ✅ Need comprehensive alignment
- ✅ Want full strategic clarity upfront

**Why this matters:**
- Flexibility to match your needs
- Not forced into one approach
- Can start simple, expand later
- Right depth for right situation

**What you gain:** Right level of depth for your project's needs

---

## Feature 6: Living Document Support

**The Problem:** Projects evolve. Assumptions change. How do you keep the brief current without starting over?

**The WDS Solution:** Easy updates through conversation with Saga.

**How it works:**

When something changes:
1. Tell Saga what changed and why
2. Saga updates the relevant sections
3. Saga maintains consistency across document
4. You review and confirm

**Example:**
- You: "We've decided to add mobile support to MVP"
- Saga: "I'll update the technical constraints and timeline. This affects the success criteria too - should we adjust those?"
- You: "Yes, let's add mobile-specific metrics"
- Saga: "Updated. Here's what changed..."

**Why this matters:**
- No starting over when things change
- Consistency maintained automatically
- Easy updates when needed
- Document stays current

**What you gain:** Living document that stays current with your project

---

## The Compound Effect

Each feature ensures quality individually. Together, they transform the process:

**Traditional Approach:**
- Research methodology alone
- Plan structure alone
- Write and format alone
- Hope you got it right
- **Result: Uncertain quality, exhausting process**

**WDS Approach:**
- Collaborate with Saga (thinking partner)
- Guided by proven methodology
- Professional structure automatically
- Confidence you covered what matters
- **Result: Excellence through partnership**

**What you gain:**
- ✅ Better quality (built-in best practices)
- ✅ More complete (nothing missed)
- ✅ More useful (structured for decisions)
- ✅ More current (easy to update)
- ✅ More aligned (created through dialogue)

---

## The Real Advantage: You Actually Do It

Here's the truth: Most teams don't create Product Briefs because they take too long and feel too hard.

**Without WDS:**
- "We should create a brief..." → Never happens
- "We'll do it next sprint..." → Never happens
- "We'll figure it out as we go..." → Chaos happens

**With WDS:**
- "Let's create a brief" → 45 minutes later, done
- No excuses about time
- No paralysis about how to start
- No confusion about what to include

**The real advantage:** You actually create the foundation your project needs because you have a thinking partner who ensures you get it right.

---

## Excellence Through Partnership

Quality doesn't happen by accident. WDS ensures excellence through collaboration:

**Smart about questions:**
- Asks the right questions in the right order
- Builds on previous answers
- Catches inconsistencies
- Prompts for missing elements

**Smart about structure:**
- Knows the proven template
- Maintains consistency
- Formats professionally
- Organizes logically

**Smart about best practices:**
- Validates SMART criteria
- Checks for completeness
- Ensures measurability
- Maintains quality

**The result:** Professional quality through guided collaboration.

---

## Comparison: WDS vs Alternatives

**vs. Templates:**
- Templates: Blank page, no guidance, formatting work
- WDS: Guided conversation, structured automatically

**vs. Consultants:**
- Consultants: Expensive, external perspective
- WDS: Affordable, your perspective captured with expert guidance

**vs. DIY:**
- DIY: Research, trial and error, uncertain quality
- WDS: Proven methodology, built-in best practices

**vs. AI Prompting:**
- AI Prompting: Generic output, no methodology, inconsistent
- WDS: Methodology-driven, consistent, complete

**WDS combines the best of all approaches:**
- Intelligence of AI
- Quality of consultants
- Structure of templates
- Personalization of DIY

---

## The Bottom Line

Creating a Product Brief used to be:
- Difficult (where to start?)
- Uncertain (did I get it right?)
- Inconsistent (different every time)
- Often skipped (too overwhelming)

With WDS, it's:
- Guided (thinking partner leads the way)
- Confident (built-in best practices)
- Consistent (proven methodology)
- Actually done (partnership makes it achievable)

**This is the WDS advantage: Professional strategic foundation through collaborative excellence.**

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## What's Next

In the next lesson, we'll explore how teams actually use the Product Brief throughout the project - from design decisions to development priorities to stakeholder alignment.

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**[Continue to Lesson 5: Using Your Product Brief →](lesson-05-using-brief.md)**

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[← Back to Lesson 3](lesson-03-document-structure.md) | [Back to Module Overview](module-04-overview.md)
