requirements-discovery

Requirements Discovery

Systematic requirements elicitation through structured questioning, stakeholder analysis, and specification development. Transforms ambiguous project ideas into concrete, measurable specifications.

When to Use This Skill

• Gathering requirements for a new project or feature from vague descriptions
• Conducting stakeholder interviews to uncover needs and constraints
• Writing or structuring a Product Requirements Document (PRD)
• Defining project scope with clear boundaries and priorities
• Creating user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria
• Identifying non-functional requirements (performance, security, scalability)
• Resolving conflicting stakeholder priorities
• Validating requirement completeness before handing off to implementation

Quick Reference

Task	Load reference
Interview patterns, PRD structure, scope definition, user story mapping	skills/requirements-discovery/references/elicitation-techniques.md

Core Principles

• Ask "why" before "how": Uncover true user needs, not assumed solutions
• Socratic questioning: Guide discovery through questions rather than assumptions
• Progressive refinement: Move from broad goals to specific, testable criteria
• Stakeholder balance: Integrate diverse perspectives without letting any single voice dominate

Workflow

1. Discovery

Understand the problem space before defining solutions.

• Identify all stakeholders and their roles
• Conduct structured interviews with open and closed questions
• Map user personas and their pain points
• Capture constraints (technical, budget, timeline, regulatory)

2. Specification

Transform raw input into structured requirements.

• Draft PRD with functional and non-functional requirements
• Write user stories with acceptance criteria
• Prioritize using MoSCoW or similar framework
• Define scope boundaries (what is explicitly out of scope)

3. Validation

Verify completeness and alignment before implementation.

• Review specifications with stakeholders
• Confirm acceptance criteria are testable and measurable
• Baseline success metrics and KPIs
• Log open questions and follow-up actions
• Prepare implementation handoff document

Common Mistakes

• Jumping to solutions before understanding the problem
• Treating requirements as fixed rather than iteratively refined
• Missing non-functional requirements (performance, security, accessibility)
• Failing to define what is out of scope
• Writing acceptance criteria that cannot be objectively tested
• Skipping validation with actual users or stakeholders