New to product: Practise · Core

Write a one-page brief and prioritise your ideas

Turn what you learned into a short brief and a ranked list of ideas, with reasons. Choosing, and explaining why, is the core craft of the job.

About 2-4 daysEvergreenLast reviewed 9 November 2026

Who this applies to

Write a problem statement from your findings: who has the problem, what it is and the evidence. One short paragraph.
List five to eight ideas that could address it, including at least one small idea and one that is not software.
Score each idea with a simple method such as RICE: reach, impact, confidence and effort. Use your interviews for reach and impact, and be honest about confidence.
Sort by score, then sense-check. Change the order only for a reason you can write down.
Write a one-page brief: the problem, the users, the idea you would test first, what is out of scope, how you would measure success and your open questions.
Write three user stories for the first idea, each with a reason ('so that') and acceptance criteria.
Put the top ideas on a Now / Next / Later roadmap, with no dates beyond the next few weeks.

Google Docs: Use a shared spreadsheet with one row per idea and RICE columns.
Claude: Paste your brief and ask what a sceptical reader would question. Decide which points to act on.