You’ve got a great idea. Maybe even a killer strategy. But unless you translate that into clear, actionable requirements, your team’s headed for confusion, delays, and scope creep.
At ProductM8, we believe great requirements don’t just document what to build — they inspire confidence, alignment, and momentum.
Here’s a framework we love for structuring your initiative requirements, and how to make sure they’re set up for success.
🧭 First, Set the Context
Before jumping into the detailed requirements, give your team (and stakeholders) the high-level why behind the initiative.
✅ 1. Goals
What is the initiative trying to achieve? This connects directly to your initiative canvas or story map.
💡 Example:
Increase first-time user activation by improving onboarding flow.
✅ 2. Strategic Fit
How does this initiative align with company priorities or customer strategy?
💡 Example:
Supports the broader Q3 focus on improving retention across all acquisition channels.
✅ 3. Assumptions
List the known unknowns — things you're assuming are true but haven’t validated yet.
💡 Example:
We assume that adding progress indicators will reduce onboarding drop-off.
🧠 Pro Tip:
Use assumptions as conversation starters. Turn them into experiments when possible.
🧩 Now, Break Down the Requirements
We like to structure requirements into three categories:
- Customer Needs
- Business Needs
- Operational Needs
Each one is written from the perspective of the stakeholder it serves. This builds empathy and accountability.
👤 1. Customer Needs
These are the features, functionality, or improvements the end user requires to complete a task or solve a problem.
Format:
“As a customer, I want to [do something] so that I can [achieve a goal].”
💡 Example:
As a customer, I want to skip intro steps so I can get to the product faster.
Acceptance Criteria:
- Skip button is visible on all onboarding steps
- Skipping directs user to main dashboard
- Skipped steps do not trigger follow-up emails
🧠 Pro Tip:
Interview real users, read support tickets, and test early concepts to generate these needs — not just from a hunch.
🏢 2. Business Needs
These requirements address internal goals like growth, monetization, compliance, or internal efficiency.
Format:
“As the business, we need to [achieve something] so that we can [drive revenue, reduce risk, etc.].”
💡 Example:
As the business, we need to track how many users complete onboarding so we can optimize future campaigns.
Acceptance Criteria:
- Completion is recorded as an event in analytics
- Data is grouped by acquisition source
- Dashboard includes 7-day and 30-day trends
🧠 Pro Tip:
Work closely with data, marketing, finance, and legal teams — this is where their world becomes part of the product.
🛠️ 3. Operational Needs
These focus on backend systems, support, or team workflows needed to support the initiative behind the scenes.
Format:
“As operations, we need to [support/deliver something] so that we can [maintain, scale, or troubleshoot the feature].”
💡 Example:
As operations, we need onboarding errors logged with user ID and timestamp so we can debug issues quickly.
Acceptance Criteria:
- All form submissions log success/failure with time and ID
- Error logs are viewable in admin tool
- Alerting system flags errors >5% in 24 hours
🧠 Pro Tip:
Invite engineers, support teams, and CX into your scoping sessions — they’ll spot gaps you never considered.
🧱 Building Your Requirements Doc
Structure your doc like this:
🧾 Initiative Requirements: “Onboarding Redesign”
Goals:
- Improve first-time user activation
- Reduce onboarding drop-off rate to <25%
Strategic Fit:
- Supports Q3 retention OKRs
- Increases value per new signup
Assumptions:
- Users drop off due to unclear progress and lack of optionality
- Progress indicators and skip buttons will improve completion
🔹 Customer Requirements
Req 1:
As a customer, I want to skip intro steps so I can get to the product faster.
→ Acceptance: Skip button, redirect to dashboard, no follow-up triggers
Req 2:
As a customer, I want to see progress so I know how much is left.
→ Acceptance: Progress bar displayed on all onboarding steps
🔸 Business Requirements
Req 3:
As the business, we need to measure onboarding completion to optimize marketing spend.
→ Acceptance: Analytics events, segmented by source, displayed in dashboard
🔹 Operational Requirements
Req 4:
As operations, we need to track form errors to reduce support tickets.
→ Acceptance: Logging, monitoring, and alerting in admin system
🧠 Final Thoughts
Great requirements don’t just say what to build — they clarify why, how, and for whom.
They help your team deliver faster, test smarter, and stay aligned with real customer and business outcomes.
Start each initiative with clarity, empathy, and structure — and watch how much smoother everything runs.
✅ TL;DR
- Goals / Strategic Fit / Assumptions = Your why
- Customer Needs = "As a customer…"
- Business Needs = "As the business…"
- Operational Needs = "As operations…"
- Acceptance Criteria = What done looks like
