Success Requests

Whenever a client sends me a feature request or user story, I reshape it as a success request. Although I continue to view a feature request / user story as valid, especially to make sure I address all the client's concerns, I now start with the fundamentals of a success request:

- Who should be more successful with this feature? (audiences)

- Once the feature is out, what is a success for each of the audiences above? (never forget to include the business!)

- What are the perceived signs of success that should be visible on the interface? What should the motivation for use be?

- How do we verify success? (audience x goal x metric)

I found that this simple framework is a solid starting point for new features. It gives me an enjoyable feeling of freedom, but it keeps me in check with reality. It also showed to be effective in making clients re-examine what they're asking for. So, it makes wonders as an assumption alignment tool, as well.