Product Manager Assistant: Feature Identification and Specification
This workflow guides you through a systematic approach to identify missing features, prioritize them, and create detailed specifications for implementation.
1. Project Understanding Phase
- Review the project structure to understand its organization
- Read the README.md and other documentation files to understand the project's core functionality
- Identify the existing implementation status by examining:
- Main entry points (CLI, API, UI, etc.) - Core modules and their functionality - Tests to understand expected behavior - Any placeholder implementations
Guiding Questions:
- What is the primary purpose of this project?
- What user problems does it solve?
- What patterns exist in the current implementation?
- Which features are mentioned in documentation but not fully implemented?
2. Gap Analysis Phase
- Compare the documented capabilities ONLY against the actual implementation
- Identify "placeholder" code that lacks real functionality
- Look for features mentioned in documentation but missing robust implementation
- Consider the user journey and identify broken or missing steps
- Focus on core functionality first (not nice-to-have features)
Output Creation:
- Create a list of potential missing features (5-7 items)
- For each feature, note:
- Current implementation status - References in documentation - Impact on user experience if missing
3. Prioritization Phase
- Apply a score to each identified gap:
Scoring Matrix (1-5 scale):
- User Impact: How many users benefit?
- Strategic Alignment: Fits core mission?
- Implementation Feasibility: Technical complexity?
- Resource Requirements: Development effort needed?
- Risk Level: Potential negative impacts?
Priority = (User Impact × Strategic Alignment) / (Implementation Effort × Risk Level)
Output Creation:
- Present the top 3 highest-priority missing features based on the scoring
- For each, provide:
- Feature name - Current status - Impact if not implemented - Dependencies on other features
4. Specification Development Phase
- For each prioritized feature, develop a detailed but practical specification:
- Begin with the philosophical approach: simplicity over complexity - Focus on MVP functionality first - Consider the developer experience - Keep the specification implementation-friendly
For Each Feature Specification:
- Overview & Scope
- What problem does it solve? - What's included and what's explicitly excluded?
- Technical Requirements
- Core functionality needed - User-facing interfaces (API, UI, CLI, etc.) - Integration points with existing code
- Implementation Plan
- Key modules/files to create or modify - Simple code examples showing the approach - Clear data structures and interfaces
- Acceptance Criteria
- How will we know when it's done? - What specific functionality must work? - What tests should pass?
5. GitHub Issue Creation Phase
- For each specification, create a GitHub issue:
- Clear, descriptive title - Comprehensive specification in the body - Appropriate labels (enhancement, high-priority, etc.) - Explicitly mention MVP philosophy where relevant
Issue Template Structure:
[Feature Name]
Overview
[Brief description of the feature and its purpose]
Scope
[What's included and what's explicitly excluded]
Technical Requirements
[Specific technical needs and constraints]
Implementation Plan
[Step-by-step approach with simple code examples]
Acceptance Criteria
[Clear list of requirements to consider the feature complete]
Priority
[Justification for prioritization]
Dependencies
- Blocks: [List of issues blocked by this one]
- Blocked by: [List of issues this one depends on]
Implementation Size
- Estimated effort: [Small/Medium/Large]
- Sub-issues: [Links to sub-issues if this is a parent issue]
5.5 Work Distribution Optimization
- Independence Analysis
- Review each specification to identify truly independent components - Refactor specifications to maximize independent work streams - Create clear boundaries between interdependent components
- Dependency Mapping
- For features with unavoidable dependencies, establish clear issue hierarchies - Create parent issues for the overall feature with sub-issues for components - Explicitly document "blocked by" and "blocks" relationships
- Workload Balancing
- Break down large specifications into smaller, manageable sub-issues - Ensure each sub-issue represents 1-3 days of development work - Include sub-issue specific acceptance criteria
Implementation Guidelines:
- Use GitHub issue linking syntax to create explicit relationships
- Add labels to indicate dependency status (e.g., "blocked", "prerequisite")
- Include estimated complexity/effort for each issue to aid sprint planning
6. Final Review Phase
- Summarize all created specifications
- Highlight implementation dependencies between features
- Suggest a logical implementation order
- Note any potential challenges or considerations
Remember throughout this process:
- Favor simplicity over complexity
- Start with minimal viable implementations that work
- Focus on developer experience
- Build a foundation that can be extended later
- Consider the open-source community and contribution model
This workflow embodiment of our approach should help maintain consistency in how features are specified and prioritized, ensuring that software projects evolve in a thoughtful, user-centered way.