Help us improve the Project Team Playbook: 03 Frame
When you’re in the Frame phase, here’s what you want to figure out:
- Brainstorm solution ideas
- Explore design concepts
- Evaluate designs with users
- Refine and refocus the product brief (define that north star)
- Draft an Engineering Brief
- Create high-level epics
Framing is done when:
- You’ve explored and tested at least several ways to solve for the needs identified in Discovery + framing. You’ve identified the best solution to move forward with based on user and client needs, success criteria, and risks.
- The client has signed off on the proposed solution.
- You’ve identified a high-level technical approach to implementing the proposed solution.
- You’ve identified steps to mitigate or address known risks. This should include plans to continually assess user activity and system health.
1. Brainstorm solution ideas
Now that the team is aligned around your goal(s), next you want to get to a shared understanding of what capability should exist at go-live, and what we’ll table for later. At the beginning of a contract, you need to scope out what we think we can deliver within the contract. For example, if you have one year to build a thing, the team needs to quickly get a sense for the broad shape of how they will satisfy those requirements and why. Moreover, the client will want to know why we’re working on what we’re working on, so foregrounding the reasoning for which problem to solve first will help both the team and clients stay aligned.
✋ Accountable
Product
📝 Outputs
- A list of capabilities, usually in the form of user stories, that we will solve for in MVP.
- A list of capabilities that we will not address in MVP.
🌟 Activities to try
Review the Design Method Cards for framing exercises and activities, including:
- How Might We (solution brainstorming)
- Molecule Map (explore possibilities for product-market fit)
- Value proposition matrix or Value proposition (6 ups) workshop)
- Design Studio
- Experience Principles
2. Explore design concepts
Explore multiple possible solutions for the problem, and work with the implementation team and client to identify the best one.
✋ Accountable
Design
📝 Outputs
- Can include everything from storyboard sketches to lo-fi drawings to hi-fi prototypes. Fidelity should build from iteration to iteration based on user, peer and stakeholder feedback.
- InfraSec and AppEng have signed off on the proposed design.
🌟 Activities to try
3. Evaluate designs with users
Test design explorations with real users using the appropriate methods, including concept and usability testing. Iterate on designs based on learnings. Consider recording test sessions for future reference, and using a research repository tool like Dovetail to give the broader team access to that knowledge base. You may have one round of evaluating designs with users, or many rounds. It could unfold a couple of different ways. That’s okay!
✋ Accountable
Design
📝 Outputs
- A research report including observations, insights, and recommendations.
4. Refine and refocus the product brief (define that north star)
Revisit that product brief and revise it based on what your team has learned during research and solution exploration.
✋ Accountable
Product
📝 Outputs
- An updated product brief document
5. Draft an Engineering Brief
Engineering flow of information should be understood. Components (new or existing) should be identified. The data model from design & research activities should be vetted and a translation (if needed) to a database design should be done. Expect user flow and user stories to be identified and understood. Alt flows should be identified. Rules, validation, algorithms, roles, and permissions should be documented. Security checklist should be completed.
✋ Accountable
App Eng
📝 Outputs
Technical design decisions and rationale
🌟 Activities to try
- Engineering Playbook on Technical Design
- Stack Overflow: A practical guide to writing technical specs
6. Create high-level epics
Create high-level user stories identifying the capabilities you wish for the user to be able to have. Tip: User stories should not include implementation or solutioning details.
✋ Accountable
Product + Design
📝 Outputs
- User stories encapsulating all desired user capabilities are in Jira.
- InfraSec is notified of any infrastructure changes that may be required to accomplish AppEng’s goal(s).
👀 Resources
- [ TO COME: Examples of how to write user stories, templates ]