intent — the initiative brief
What an Initiative Brief contains
Five components. Everything else is downstream.
The human gap
Specific enough to generate an observation question. "A science teacher with a 28-student class cannot complete a full exam grading cycle in a single session without switching between three tools." Specific. Observable. Something someone could go and watch.
The business gap
What the organisation cannot do as a result. Connected to the current Objective so the bet is traceable.
Discovery questions
Three to five things to observe, not ask. "Watch a teacher complete a full grading cycle from exam close to school submission" is an observation question. "Ask teachers what frustrates them" produces descriptions of the adapted problem — not the original.
Feature candidates
Hypotheses about what might close the gap. Not scoped, not committed. Named so they can be tested or discarded. A candidate that survives becomes a Feature Brief.
What we have not yet witnessed
An explicit record of what is still assumed. This section stays live until discovery closes each item. Named risk is navigable. Unnamed risk appears as a scope change in sprint four.
How to apply this
- ✓ Write the human gap before the feature candidates. The gap is the reason. The candidates are guesses about how to close it. Writing them in reverse produces a gap that justifies solutions already in mind.
- ✓ Write discovery questions as things to watch, not ask. Every ask question can be converted: "ask teachers about grading" becomes "watch a teacher complete a grading cycle."
- ✓ Is the human gap specific enough to generate a concrete observation question? If you cannot picture the session that would confirm or deny it, it needs to be more specific.
- ✗ Do not leave the 'not yet witnessed' section blank. A blank section means the team has not thought about what they are assuming. Every initiative has open assumptions.
- ✗ Do not file the Initiative Brief as finished when first written. It is designed to be live — updating as discovery closes items and candidates move through their lifecycle.