Copy this page to your Notion / Google Doc. Italic text contains hints — delete them when you are done. Placeholders in angle brackets should be replaced with your content. Also look at the examples.

📍 Situation

<Situation description>

In a few sentences in your own words describe the situation. Write in the third person: imagine you flew in from Alpha Centauri, have no stake in the situation whatsoever, and are observing it through a lens from high orbit.

🏋️ Stakeholders

• <role / position> — commissions the task
• <role / position> — will be affected by the task in <this way> [adjacent teams, users, developers, etc.]
• <role / position> — knows <what useful things they know> about the task

Repeat for each material stakeholder.

Stakeholders are different people with their own will and interests, capable of influencing the situation. These are not roles that one person can hold, but specifically different people who make decisions based on their own interests, which may not align with ours.

Stakeholders here are not only those who participate in the project (manager, developers, etc.), but also those who may not seem to make decisions but will be affected by it (for example, users, support, other market players).

⚡ Pains

• If we don't do the task at all, then <what will break / who will "die">.
• <circumstance, fact> causes <stakeholder 1> to feel <pain description>, which means <stakeholder 2> <cannot do something / is forced to pay something>.

Repeat for each pain.

At the start you will not be sure whether such pains exist and whether they are really important. Write your assumptions — you will clarify them later.

Stakeholder 1 and 2 in the template may be the same or different.

🏗️ Processes

• <process name>
  • why it's needed
  • participants
  • owner
• <process name>

📈 Metrics

• <metric name>
  • dimensions / slices that are important to look at Translator's note: "разрезы" means the breakdowns or dimensions by which you split the metric — e.g. by channel, country, device, etc.
  • reference values: what we consider normal and what we consider a problem
  • how it's calculated
• <metric name>

📗 What we know

• <fact> — <source>
• <fact> — <source>

List all facts related to the task: about processes, the market, the product, people, etc. Pictures, charts, and process diagrams are welcome.

Also include info on whether the data is available or needs to be obtained.

If there are more than 7 facts, group them by topic.

If a fact description grows too long, move it to a separate page whose heading briefly states the fact: for example, "Users are not very price-sensitive," with the reasoning, charts, and details behind the link.

🔖 What we don't know

• <question group 1>
• <question group 2>

💡 Hypotheses

• I expect that <statement>.
  • To check this, I will <action>.
  • If it turns out that <acceptance condition> — I will consider the hypothesis confirmed; if <rejection condition> — rejected.

List 2–5 main hypotheses in this format.

🚀 Next steps

• <action 1>, to <learn about / test which question / hypothesis>
• <action 2>, to <learn about / test which question / hypothesis>

For the next week or two, in order of priority.

Author — krvkir, license — CC-BY-SA 4.0.