[Test] Before You Build More: 3-Questions for Product Clarity
Most teams don't have a shipping problem. They have a clarity problem. Here's how to check before you build.
You’ve got ideas.
Deadlines.
Dev capacity.
You’re ready to ship the next thing.
But before you build more—ask these three questions.
Because building fast without clarity first doesn't create momentum.
It just creates expensive motion.
You’ve got ideas.
Deadlines.
Dev capacity.
You’re ready to ship the next thing.
But before you build more—ask these three questions.
Because building fast without clarity first doesn't create momentum.
It just creates expensive motion.
✅ Clarity Test #1:
What outcome are we trying to create?
If your answer starts with “deliver,” “launch,” or “complete”—you’re describing an activity, not an outcome.
🛠 Factory Settings focus on shipping.
🧠 Clarity-First Teams focus on change.
Ask instead:
What should customers do differently after this ships?
What metric will move—and why now?
✅ Clarity Test #2:
What would need to be true for that outcome to happen?
Most roadmaps start with backlog items.
Clarity-First Teams start with conditions.
Ask:
What must we learn, prove, or unblock first?
What's the riskiest assumption hiding in plain sight?
✅ Clarity Test #3:
Why this—right now?
If urgency is your only filter, Factory Settings are already running.
Ask:
Is this decision based on strategy—or pressure?
What are we saying no to by saying yes to this?
📊 Score Yourself:
💥 What This Reveals
If your team struggled with these 3 questions, you're not alone.
Most product teams are running on Factory Settings—a default mode optimized for motion, not momentum.
The problem isn’t your people.
It’s that Factory Settings feel productive while systematically creating the problems they’re supposed to solve.
📄 Want the PDF Version?
You can download the full Before You Build More: 3-Question Clarity Test as a printable, shareable PDF—perfect for strategy offsites, product reviews, or clarity rituals with your team.
🔁 What’s Next?
If this hit, I’ve built something else for you:
🧰 The Clarity Starter Stack
It’s a short orientation that includes:
The Factory Settings diagnostic
My most-used clarity tools
And a breakdown of your flywheel’s weak point
→ Coming soon to this newsletter.
Factory Settings Reality Check
Under pressure, you don’t rise to the level of your frameworks.
You fall to your Factory Settings.
When your default thinking breaks under stress—
it’s not a failure of effort. It’s a failure of system design.
🧭 Run a Clarity Sprint — a 15-minute, high-leverage conversation that diagnoses your momentum gaps and reveals your next step to move forward.
5-minute setup. 15-minute conversation.
The clarity you've been missing to move forward.