checklist · trio sign-off
Feature Brief · trio sign-off
Read in 60 seconds before any of the three signs. One signature without the other two does not move the cycle.
TIP
The trio's resistance is the corpus's discipline against drift. Each line below carries a because: link — click for the practice or canon anchor that explains why the line is load-bearing. If any line cannot be checked, the brief is not signed.
Before any of the three signs
[ ] Experience snapshot names a real person. First name, role, the moment — not "the user", not "graders".
because:every brief begins with a named person whose life will change — Canon · Person & Moment[ ] The snapshot is 150–200 words. Specific. No UI language. No feature names. The reader can picture the moment.
because:witnessed, not described — Principle[ ] Purpose is one sentence with a measurable change. Not enable. Not improve. The change in the world.
because:a brief without a measurable change is decoration — Practice · Writing feature briefs[ ] In-scope is concrete capabilities, not categories. Each line names a thing the named person can newly do.
because:vague scope leaks — Practice · Step 3[ ] Out-of-scope has rationale per item. Not "we will not boil the ocean". Specific exclusions with why.
because:out-of-scope without reason is a backlog — Practice · Step 4[ ] Prediction has all five fields. Baseline (witnessed), target, check date, check method, named owner.
because:no baseline, no execution — Checklist · Five fields[ ] Success signal restates the prediction in one sentence. The trio can recite it from memory.
because:if the trio can't recite it, the team can't ship to it — Practice · Step 6
PO signs because
- [ ] I have sat next to the named person in the last six weeks, or the observation note linked from this brief is dated within six weeks.
- [ ] The prediction's check date is in my calendar with a one-hour block.
- [ ] I can defend each out-of-scope line in one sentence.
Designer signs because
- [ ] I recognise the named person from the journey map.
- [ ] I can sketch the flow with empty, loading, error, and success states for the first story.
- [ ] No copy of the change has been outsourced to engineering.
Tech Lead signs because
- [ ] I can sketch sequence, schema, and API for the change on a whiteboard in 30 minutes.
- [ ] I have named the one ility the cycle invests in and the ones explicitly deferred.
- [ ] Any non-reversible decision the cycle needs has an ADR — or I have noted ADR-NNN (proposed) for it.
When sign-off resists
| Resistance | Read |
|---|---|
| One of the three asks for "more detail" | The brief is being asked to do the Technical Design Brief's work — see Practice · Writing technical design briefs |
| Sign-off keeps getting deferred to next week | Either the brief is unfinished, or the cycle has lost calendar discipline. Re-walk Initiative Brief · kill criterion — is this initiative still alive? |
| One signature appears without the others | Not signed. The brief does not move. |
If any line cannot be checked, the brief is not signed. The cycle does not start.
See also
- Template — Feature Brief
- Practice — Writing feature briefs
- Canon — Before We Build · Feature Brief
- Clinic — A brief that didn't witness · A brief written from the solution backwards