Feature planning

Overview

Use this skill to convert product intent into an executable plan with a smallest useful slice, visible risks, and explicit success criteria.

When to Use

• new feature work
• functional redesign with behavior changes
• work that needs staged delivery

When NOT to Use

• tiny local changes with obvious scope
• tasks that still lack the basic problem framing
• the feature has not yet been judged worth doing — run feature-value-governance first; planning a feature that should be killed or parked is wasted work

Core Moves

1. Name the problem and target outcome.
2. Define in-scope versus out-of-scope.
3. Choose the smallest useful slice.
4. Break the work into verifiable increments.
5. Declare the evidence needed to accept the first slice.

Optional Modules

• Specification clarification — Mark unresolved questions with [NEEDS CLARIFICATION], separate what/why from how, and ask only questions that would change the plan, proof, architecture, or readiness.
• Dependencies map — Capture external systems, contracts, or approvals when delivery is not fully local.
• Risk review — Name the main reversible and irreversible risks.
• Metrics hook — Add success indicators when the feature should change observable behavior.
• Stakeholder alignment — Record who needs to review or sign off when multiple functions are involved.
• Traceability and anti-overengineering check — Link requirement, decision, task, and acceptance evidence before implementation, then remove complexity that does not protect the first slice.
• Feature-worthiness check — Before planning delivery, confirm the feature was judged worth doing (problem, ICP, lever, evidence, permanent cost). If it was not, stop and route to feature-value-governance.
• Revenue-lever fit — Confirm the plan's first slice actually moves the declared revenue/value lever, not just adjacent activity.
• Scope-boundaries (do-not-build) — Make the non-build explicit: list what is deliberately not being built and the criterion that would change that, separating a real MVP from scope accumulation.

Activation Triggers

• Use specification clarification when the request has ambiguity that could change scope, proof, technical direction, or readiness.
• Add the dependencies map when another system or team is involved.
• Run the risk review when the change is hard to reverse.
• Add metrics when the feature changes adoption, reliability, or decision quality.
• Use stakeholder alignment when the work crosses product, design, and engineering.
• Use traceability and anti-overengineering check when the plan starts producing many tasks, hidden implementation assumptions, or architecture before the first slice is stable.
• Use the feature-worthiness check at the start of any non-trivial plan; if worthiness is unproven, stop and route to feature-value-governance.
• Use revenue-lever fit when the plan risks optimizing activity that does not move the declared lever.
• Use scope-boundaries (do-not-build) when scope is creeping or stakeholders keep adding "while we're at it" asks.

Expected Output

• problem statement
• goal and non-goals
• clarified what/why plus explicit how boundary
• unresolved questions marked with [NEEDS CLARIFICATION]
• smallest useful slice
• incremental plan
• requirement to decision to task to evidence trace, when needed
• acceptance evidence

Verification

• The first slice is defensible on its own.
• Ambiguities that affect the plan are declared instead of silently resolved.
• The plan keeps what/why separate from how until the implementation boundary is explicit.
• Each slice has a clear acceptance condition.
• Main dependencies and risks are visible.
• Tasks can be traced back to a requirement, decision, and acceptance evidence when traceability is needed.
• The plan does not smuggle in hidden scope.
• The plan does not add architecture, automation, or process that is unnecessary for the smallest useful slice.

Handoff Signals

• A new contract or domain boundary appears.
• A [NEEDS CLARIFICATION] item blocks the plan, proof, or readiness decision.
• The work requires a specialized review before implementation.
• The rollout depends on another team or operating system.

Pairs Well With

• workflow
• testing
• architecture-review
• premortem

Anti-patterns

• Using planning as a way to hide oversized scope.
• Listing phases without a smallest useful slice.
• Leaving proof implicit until the end.
• Treating unresolved ambiguity as permission to invent requirements.
• Turning every feature into a heavyweight specification ceremony.