5.2 KiB

Raw Blame History

Phase 1: Product Exploration

Agent: Saga the Analyst
Output: A-Product-Brief/ (or your configured prefix)

What This Phase Does

Product Exploration establishes your strategic foundation through conversational discovery. Instead of filling out questionnaires, you have a conversation that builds understanding organically.

By the end, you'll have a Product Brief that captures your vision and serves as the north star for your entire project.

What You'll Create

Your Product Brief includes:

Executive Summary - The vision that inspires teams
Problem Statement - The "why" that drives decisions
User Types - The "who" that guides design (initial identification)
Solution Approach - The "how" that enables development
Success Criteria - The "what" that measures progress
Market Positioning - How you're different (optional: ICP framework)
Value Trigger Chain (VTC) - Strategic benchmark created after vision and positioning

The VTC (Step 4):

After capturing your vision and positioning, you'll create a Value Trigger Chain - a strategic summary that serves as a benchmark for all subsequent discovery work. It captures:

Business Goal → Solution → User → Driving Forces → Customer Awareness

This early VTC ensures all remaining discovery (business model, success criteria, etc.) aligns with your core strategy. If anything contradicts the VTC during discovery, either the VTC needs refinement or the discovery finding doesn't serve your strategy.

How It Works

The Conversational Approach

Traditional requirements gathering treats people like databases - extracting answers through rigid questionnaires. WDS does it differently.

Instead of: "Please complete this 47-question requirements document"

WDS says: "Tell me about your project in your own words"

People light up when asked to share their vision. They become collaborators, not interrogation subjects.

The Session Flow

Opening (5-10 minutes)

Saga asks about your project in your own words. She listens for:

What you emphasize naturally
Where your energy goes
What excites vs. what stresses you
Your exact language and terminology

Exploration (15-30 minutes)

The conversation adapts to what you reveal:

If you mention users → deeper into user insights
If you mention problems → explore the cost of not solving
If you mention competition → discover differentiation
If you mention timeline → understand urgency drivers

Each answer reveals the next question. It's jazz, not classical music.

Synthesis (10-15 minutes)

Saga reflects back your vision in organized form:

Connecting dots you shared across topics
Highlighting insights you might not have seen
Building the foundation for next phases

Living Document

As you talk, the Product Brief grows in real-time:

Immediate validation and refinement
Real-time course correction
You own the content because you helped create it
"Yes, exactly!" moments that build trust

When to Use This Phase

Always start here if:

Building something new
Starting a new project
Need strategic clarity before diving into design

Skip if:

You already have a clear, documented product brief
Just enhancing an existing feature
Working on a design system without new product context

What to Prepare

Come ready to share:

Your project idea (even if rough)
The problem you're solving
Who might use it
Why it matters to you

You don't need polished answers. The conversation will help clarify everything.

What Comes Next

Your Product Brief enables:

Phase 2: User Research - Deeper into user psychology with your strategic context
Phase 3: Requirements - Technical decisions aligned with your vision
Phase 4: UX Design - Design work grounded in strategic purpose

The brief becomes the reference point everyone shares.

Tips for Great Sessions

Let the conversation flow

Share what feels important, even if it seems tangential
Follow your energy - where you're excited matters

Think out loud

Half-formed thoughts are welcome
will help you refine them

Be honest about uncertainty

"I'm not sure about X" is useful information
Better to surface doubts now than later

Review as you go

Check that what's captured matches your thinking
Correct misunderstandings immediately

Example Output

See: examples/dog-week-patterns/A-Product-Brief/ for a complete Product Brief example from a real project.

Method Guides:

Value Trigger Chain Guide - Creating your strategic benchmark (Step 4)
Phase 2: Trigger Mapping Guide - Deep user psychology (next phase)

Strategic Models:

Customer Awareness Cycle - Understanding user awareness stages (used in VTC)
Golden Circle - WHY, HOW, WHAT framework (useful for vision)

Workflows:

Product Brief Workflow: workflows/1-project-brief/project-brief/complete/workflow.md
Pitch & Signoff Workflow: workflows/1-project-brief/alignment-signoff/workflow.md

Phase 1 of the Whiteport Design Studio method

5.2 KiB Raw Blame History