Features, Requirements, and Assumptions
A feature is a product capability, a requirement states a condition it must satisfy, and an assumption is an unproven belief behind the plan. Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
What You Will Be Able to Decide
- Explain features, requirements, and assumptions in product and business terms.
- Apply this decision: Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
- Recognise this material risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- Ask a consultant for evidence rather than reassurance.
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build.
A feature is a product capability, a requirement states a condition it must satisfy, and an assumption is an unproven belief behind the plan.
A consultant can recommend and implement the technical approach. The founder still needs to decide which outcome matters, which risk is acceptable, and what evidence is sufficient.
Start with the Consequence
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build.
The immediate question is features, requirements, and assumptions. The technical label matters only because it changes a product decision, a responsibility, or the evidence required before launch.
Technical term
Features, Requirements, and Assumptions
A feature is a product capability, a requirement states a condition it must satisfy, and an assumption is an unproven belief behind the plan.
Treat it like a clause in a commercial agreement: its value comes from making expectations and consequences clear, not from sounding formal.
Turn the Term into Evidence
Start with the product consequence, then choose the simplest technical treatment that protects it. A longer tool list is not a stronger plan.
For this decision, the useful standard is that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- Make the decision explicit: Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
- Ask what evidence would show that the chosen approach works.
- Name the person or provider responsible when the approach fails.
- Record the result in the MVP brief and acceptance criteria.
Match the Control to the Consequence
Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
The principal risk is that unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget. This does not require the most expensive possible solution. It requires the consequence to be understood and the control to match it.
- Describe the user or business outcome that must be protected.
- Identify the most credible failure and its consequence.
- Compare the simplest adequate approach with one realistic alternative.
- Set a review point for when the decision may need to change.
Evidence Compared with Assumption
Warning Signs
- Nobody can explain how features, requirements, and assumptions changes a user or business outcome.
- The proposal does not address this risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- The only evidence is a successful demonstration of the easiest path.
- The decision has no named owner, boundary, or review point.
- A provider-specific feature is being mistaken for a permanent product requirement.
Questions to Ask a Consultant
- What decision are we making about features, requirements, and assumptions?
- Which user or business outcome does the recommendation protect?
- How have we reduced or accepted this risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- What evidence can I review without relying on the original implementer?
- What is deliberately deferred, and when will it be reconsidered?
- Who owns the accounts, data, documentation, and recovery process?
Key takeaway
Key Takeaway
A feature is a product capability, a requirement states a condition it must satisfy, and an assumption is an unproven belief behind the plan. The founder's job is to make the consequence explicit; the consultant's job is to recommend and demonstrate a proportionate implementation.