goga-define-success

goga-define-success

Purpose

Define the criteria that determine whether the product change successfully solves the identified problem and delivers the intended user experience.

Transform the problem, goals, user experience, requirements, and scope into a concise set of observable success criteria that can be used to verify the completed product.

These criteria are an intermediate PRD artifact. They are not intended to become a long-term analytics or product-metrics framework.

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Contract

consume:
  - problem
  - goals
  - user_experience
  - requirements
  - scope

produce:
  - success_criteria

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Core Principle

Success criteria answer:

How will we know that the implemented product actually delivers what we decided to build?

They should verify the intended product outcome and behaviour.

Do not turn this stage into a metrics-design exercise.

Only define metrics when a quantitative measure is necessary to make the PRD sufficiently precise for engineering and subsequent validation.

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Product Interview

Success criteria must reflect what the user considers a successful product outcome.

Do not invent success metrics or targets merely because they appear useful.

Interview the user when it is unclear:

• what outcome should define success;
• which outcome is most important;
• whether a quantitative measure is actually necessary;
• whether several possible success definitions imply different product priorities.

Prefer observable outcomes over arbitrary metrics.

If a quantitative target is not explicitly justified by the product context, do not invent one.

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Process

1. Start from the goals

For each important goal, determine what evidence would demonstrate that the goal has been achieved.

Use:

Goal
  ↓
Expected outcome
  ↓
Success criterion

A criterion should make success observable rather than merely restating the goal.

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2. Validate the user experience

Check whether the important user scenarios described in user_experience can be verified.