Features, Requirements, and Assumptions
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? 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.
- Use this review: Trace one booking from the customer's first request to a confirmed appointment, then test what happens when the slot is unavailable.
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build. This lesson gives you a concrete question to take into a build brief, proposal review, or product decision.
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? The course example is A founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses; use it to decide what evidence would justify the choice before a builder implements it.
What Does Features, Requirements, and Assumptions Mean for Your Product?
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build.
Use the illustrative service for this course (A founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses) to make the choice concrete. Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it?
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.
How Should a Founder Use Features, Requirements, and Assumptions?
For a founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses, ask what would happen if unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
For this decision, the useful standard is that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- Decision: Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
- Evidence to request: show that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- Owner: name who will respond if unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- Record the result in the MVP brief and acceptance criteria.
- Practical review: Trace one booking from the customer's first request to a confirmed appointment, then test what happens when the slot is unavailable.
How Do You Choose an Approach to Features, Requirements, and Assumptions?
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain.
The risk is that unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget. Compare a simpler option with the proposed one, including who will operate either choice.
- 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.
What Evidence Should You Accept for Features, Requirements, and Assumptions?
What Warning Signs Should You Look For?
- The proposal does not address this risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- Nobody can show whether a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- The decision has no named owner or review point.
What Should You Ask a Consultant?
- What changes for the user if we choose this approach to features, requirements, and assumptions?
- How have we reduced or accepted this risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.
- Can you demonstrate that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption?
- Who owns the result, and when will we reconsider it?
Key takeaway
Key Takeaway
Label each statement correctly so the team knows what to build, what to verify, and what remains uncertain. Ask for evidence against the specific risk: unproven assumptions are treated as fixed requirements and consume the budget.