julianoczkowski/product-manager/pm-use-scenarios

Use Scenarios (Pragmatic Framework: Planning → Use Scenarios)

Rule: articulate problems from the persona's point of view. A use scenario illustrates a market problem as a "story" that puts it in context (including current results) — it is one component of requirements. See ../pm-copilot/references/framework.md. Personas should exist first (pm-personas).

Anatomy of a Problem Card

Map interrogatives to fields:

Reframing sentence (great for turning a feature request into a problem):

[Persona] struggles with [problem] when [context] because [why it matters].

What vs. How — stay on the WHAT

A use scenario ≠ a use case. A use scenario tells the problem story; a use case enumerates every interaction in the functional spec (the team's job).

Three considerations when articulating a problem

1. Avoid ambiguous terms — do not use: *flexible, adaptable, user-friendly, TBD,

adequate, rapidly/quickly/fast, fault tolerant, scalable, ASAP, maximize/minimize/optimize (any "-ize" word), and/or, etc.* Replace each with a concrete, observable statement.

1. Edge cases ("what if?") — will your persona actually do it? Don't design for

situations that won't happen.

1. Who is significant? — the U-curve: the vocal extremes (novices + experts) are

where we listen; the proficient majority is where we should listen. Write for the majority.

Interview the user (batch questions)

1. Which persona and which market problem is this scenario for?
2. Walk me through a real situation where this happens — what triggers it, what do they

do today, and what's the current (bad) result?

1. How often does it occur (frequency)?
2. What evidence shows this is real (counts across inputs) and how bad is it (impact)?

Artifact template

# Use Scenarios — <Product / Release>
 
**Company:** <company>  ·  **Feature / Product:** <feature / product name>
**Author:** <author>  ·  **Date created:** <date>  ·  **Version:** 1.0
 
## Scenario 1 — <Problem Name>
**Problem Card**
-**Problem Name:** <what>
-**Persona:** <who>
-**Use Scenario:** <why — the situation that causes the problem>
-**Frequency:** <when / how often>
 
**Day in the life**
<A short first-person narrative: the persona's context, the trigger, what they do today,
and the frustrating current result. Concrete and specific — no ambiguous terms.>
 
**Market evidence:** <# of documented occurrences across inputs>
**Impact:** <1–5 on the impact scale (or 99999 if contractual)>
 
## Scenario 2 — <Problem Name>
…

Deliver the artifact

Follow ../pm-copilot/references/artifact-output.md: confirm inputs, ask Markdown or .docx, write the .md, convert to .docx on request via your environment's native document-creation capability. Then offer the next stage: roll these scenarios into prioritized `pm-requirements` or a full `pm-prd`.