A one pager is the first step when starting a new project to help you(the PM) define and scope a customer problem. It is a well researched story used as a tool to communicate to your team and arm them with information to help them come up with a solution, build empathy with the customer.
The audience for this story is your team(engineers, designers, other PMs), and stakeholders. Write this document for your readers and like a person without context or technical knowledge can understand it.
Show don’t tell - the more pictures, direct quotes, examples, graphs, the better.
⚠️A one pager is not a description of what you’re building, a list of requirements, or a list of features.
One pagers are only as useful as the communication within your team
✂ Delete everything above to start your template.
📖Story
The story is the most important!
Describe who your customer is and what this means to them
Zoom out from your product - what is the customers ultimate goal
JTBD When __, I want ___, so that I _____.
Write this story in a way that is compelling and succinct
Tips
→ Don’t rush this part!
→ If you need multiple paragraphs to explain this you probably don’t have enough of a grasp on what it is yet
→ You may have a few revisions on this as you learn more
⚠️ If you’re trying to write the story in a way that it fits into some bucket or under some goal, that’s a warning sign.
🌅Background
Expand on the story and why your audience should care. Add any lessons you’ve learned and why this problem is relevant to your business.
Add any direct quotes from your customers, insights, etc.
💫Goals
Add numbers based goal(s) and the impact it’s going to have on your product.
📑Requirements & Constraints
⚠️ Not what you should build.
This section helps scope the problem(e.g. cannot impact x other product; do in scope of these parameters). Help narrow the focus.
Any risks or dependencies
Capture open questions - anything that you already know might be a roadblock or risk
⏰Timebox
This is where we understand how long this should take to build. Help us prioritize. Devote a reasonable amount of time to solve this problem depending on how important you think it is(e.g. a quarter, sprint, week, day). When you expect to hope to accomplish this project
💡Concepts & References
All the research you’ve done so others can use them to learn more
What’s a one pager?
📖 Story
🌅 Background
💫 Goals
📑 Requirements & Constraints
⏰ Timebox
💡 Concepts & References