Product blueprint

Product Blueprint

Think like a product manager and product designer before code exists: turn a product idea into a concrete UX definition — the feature map, the screen inventory, the onboarding sequence, and the settings contents — so the build starts from a deliberate product, not an improvised one.

The core principle: every screen, feature, and setting must earn its place by serving the core loop. The blueprint's job is as much deciding what does NOT exist as what does.

Output is always a written artifact: docs/blueprint.md in the project (or the working directory if no project exists yet). If saas-builder is in play, the blueprint feeds its Phase 1 spec directly — core flow, NOT-in-v1 list, and acceptance criteria all draw from it.

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The five passes

Work through these in order. Each pass produces a section of docs/blueprint.md.

Pass 1 — Anchor

Three sentences, written down before anything else:

1. The job: who hires this product and for what recurring task.
2. The core loop: the repeated cycle that delivers value, as a verb chain ("log expense → see category totals → export for tax"). Not the signup flow — the loop a retained user runs weekly.
3. The activation moment: the specific first action after which a new user has felt the value ("sent their first invoice"). Every onboarding decision later is aimed at this sentence.

Pass 2 — Feature map

Research first, then sort. Scan 2–3 reference products in the category (web search/fetch when available; the user's named reference product from intake counts as one). You are looking for table stakes — features users of this category assume exist and whose absence reads as broken — not for features to copy wholesale.

Features the user named in their idea are candidates too — they enter the same bucket tests below, not straight into v1. If one lands in Later, propose that with a one-line reason; the user can override at the checkpoint, and an override goes into v1 as a deliberate, costed decision.

Sort every candidate feature into exactly one bucket:

Bucket	Test	v1?
Core loop	Removing it breaks the loop from Pass 1	Yes
Table stakes	Category users assume it exists (found in ALL reference products' base tier)	Yes, minimal version
Differentiator	The ONE reason to pick this over the reference products	Yes
Plumbing	Auth, billing, notifications, settings — standard machinery	Yes, thinnest version
Later	Everything else, however good	No — listed explicitly

Rules: one differentiator, not three. If a "table stakes" claim rests on one reference product having it, it is Later. The Later list is written out in full — it becomes saas-builder's NOT-in-v1 fence.

The write side implies a read side. Every feature that creates or changes data must name, in its bucket entry, where each affected actor sees and manages that data — a lead-capture form is not a feature until the lead list/detail its owner works from exists in the screen inventory, with its lifecycle states (new → contacted → converted/lost) named. If the actors include both a tenant admin and the platform owner, they are different roles: the platform owner does not see tenant content by default; cross-tenant access needs a stated support reason.

Admin capability is plumbing but almost never v1 plumbing: the v1 default is running support from the platform dashboards (Supabase for data, Stripe for payments), with an in-app admin panel arriving via saas-builder's production-hardening ladder once real users justify it. It enters the v1 buckets only when moderation or support IS part of the core loop (e.g. a marketplace). Record the decision either way — "Admin: dashboards until hardening" is a blueprint line, not an assumption.

Pass 3 — Screen inventory

Pick ONE information-architecture archetype from references/screen-archetypes.md (object-first, board, feed, canvas, ledger, or conversation) — the archetype dictates the main surface, the navigation, and what the user lands on. Do not default to a dashboard homepage; v1 almost always lands on the object list or the core action instead.

Then enumerate every screen as a table:

Screen	Job (one line)	Primary action	Key elements	Notes

Constraints per row: exactly one primary action; every list screen's empty state is specified in Key elements (what it teaches + the button it shows); a screen whose job needs two sentences is two screens. The baseline set for any SaaS v1 (auth screens, first-run, main surface, detail/create, settings, paywall if paid, landing) is in the archetypes reference — start from it and delete, don't invent from zero.

Then connect the nodes — the inventory is screens; the flow is edges:

• Every primary action names its destination in its table row ("Save → invoice detail", "Sign up → first-run step 1"). An action without a stated destination is an undesigned redirect the build will improvise.
• Write the golden path as one arrow chain from landing page to the activation moment (landing → signup → first-run → main surface → core action → result). If the chain busts the click budget, cut screens now, not mid-build.
• Default redirects unless a row overrides them: after create → the created object's detail; after delete → the list it came from; after payment → the thing just paid for (never a bare "success" page); after login → the main surface, or the deep link originally requested.

Pass 4 — Onboarding sequence

A numbered sequence from signup to the activation moment from Pass 1. For each step: what the screen shows, the ONE input it asks for (if any), and what skipping it does. Design rules:

• Value before data. Ask for personal/config data at the moment it's used, never as a signup questionnaire. If a step's input doesn't change what the next screen shows, cut the step.
• Collapse setup into the first run of the core action — connecting, importing, and configuring happen inside "create your first X", not before it.
• Prefill or sample when input is expensive. Template galleries, sample data, a demo object marked as deletable — anything that lets the user see the loop's output before fully paying its input cost.
• Count the steps. Signup → activation in ≤ 5 screens for a v1. No product tours, no tooltip sequences — if a step needs explaining, redesign the step.
• For team products: single-player value first; the invite prompt appears after activation, not during onboarding.

When used with saas-builder, its references/design-ux.md first-run rules apply on top of this sequence — this pass defines the steps, that file governs their feel.

Pass 5 — Settings inventory

Settings are where undecided product questions go to hide. The rule: a setting exists only where real users genuinely diverge; everywhere else, make the decision and ship a default. Every toggle doubles the test surface.

Build the inventory from the spine in references/settings-catalog.md (account, security, billing, notifications, workspace, data/privacy), mark each spine item v1 / later / n-a, then add product-specific settings ONLY where a feature-map item forces one — and for each, write the default that would let you delete the setting entirely. If the default survives scrutiny, delete the setting and keep the default.

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Handoff

Write all five sections to docs/blueprint.md.

Checkpoint: show the blueprint and get a yes before anything downstream uses it — same rule as saas-builder's spec and plan checkpoints. Corrections go into the file, not just the chat. Then:

• Into saas-builder: the core loop becomes the spec's core flow; the Later list becomes NOT-in-v1; the screen inventory scopes the plan's tasks; the activation moment becomes the analytics target in the launch checklist. Run its Phase 0 intake as normal — most answers now exist.
• Standalone use (user only wanted the thinking): present the blueprint and stop; do not start scaffolding.

The blueprint is a living scope document: mid-build feature ideas get sorted into a bucket (usually Later) before any code, same as the spec's scope fence.

Common mistakes

• Feature map by brainstorm instead of by loop. Symptom: buckets full of "nice for the user" items. Fix: re-run the bucket tests; anything justified by "users would like" and not by the loop or a reference product is Later.
• Dashboard-first IA for a product with one object type. A dashboard summarizes activity the user doesn't have yet. Land on the list or the action.
• Onboarding as a form. Three questions before showing anything is a questionnaire, not onboarding. Move each question to the moment its answer is used.
• Settings as a feature dump. "Make it configurable" is deferred design. Apply the delete-the-setting test to every product-specific entry.
• Blueprint only in chat. Chat is not storage; if it isn't in docs/blueprint.md, the next session rebuilds it from memory, wrongly.

Reference files

• references/screen-archetypes.md — the six IA archetypes with their main surface, navigation, landing screen, and the baseline v1 screen set.
• references/settings-catalog.md — the settings spine (what every SaaS eventually needs, and which parts are v1) plus the delete-the-setting test.