sequential is important. The requirements and design happen together, and then implementation and test can happen together.

In my mind, there’s only one form of spec that can deliver on these requirements, and that is the high-fidelity prototype.

The spec must describe the full user experience—not just the product requirements but also the user interaction and visual design. By now, hopefully everyone

supplementary material. What I really want is to annotate the prototype, but until that technology is readily available, I prefer using a Wiki or other form of Intranet site. The biggest reason

product decision makers are all available with the express purpose of making those decisions the product organization needs to get products to market.

For virtually all product decisions, the key is to properly frame the decision to be made, and to first get everyone on the same page in terms of: What problem exactly are you trying to solve? Who exactly are you trying to solve this problem for—which persona? What are the goals you are trying to satisfy with this product? What is the relative prio

experience, to now I advocate prototyping virtually everything—all pages/screens, and all the major use cases. There will still be some error conditions and corner cases that

different than production software. Prototype software needs to be truly disposable. It needs to be something that can be changed substantially in a few hours. What is necessary for production software is like dragging around a boat anchor for a

The benefits to the customers/users that join: They get early and significant product input—they recognize the problem that this product is trying to solve, they feel the pain, and are anxious to ensure they find a good solution They get early access to the product—again, they feel the pain, so the sooner they can get relief the better Typically, t