01
Product brief
What we are building, for whom, and how success is measured — one document engineering, product, and leadership all sign.
DESIGN · STAGE 02 / 04
What exactly do we build first?
Discover ends in a decision. Define ends in a shape. We align scope, prototype, blueprint, and roadmap — so the build starts moving instead of guessing.
- TYPICAL LENGTH
- 3–6 weeks
- WHO SHOWS UP
- Product designer · product manager · architect
- STARTS WITH
- A chosen bet that needs a buildable first release
WHAT YOU WALK AWAY WITH
Artifacts, not impressions.
Reproduced from real engagements and redacted where they must be. The redaction is part of the discipline you are buying.
02
Working prototype
Clickable, tested on real users, cheap to be wrong about. The prototype absorbs the mistakes so production doesn’t have to.
03
Service blueprint
The user journey on top; the operational and system layers it depends on underneath. The release-one cut line drawn through it.
04
Delivery roadmap
Sequenced bets and release cycles with the trade-offs visible — not a Gantt chart with the risk hidden in month four.
Definition is the cheapest place to be wrong.
HOW IT RUNS
A definition week, mid-engagement.
One real week beats any methodology diagram. This is the rhythm, not the highlight reel.
-
MON
Journey mapping with the people who will operate it — not just use it.
-
TUE
Prototype iteration. Yesterday’s test results change today’s screens.
-
WED
Five user tests, recorded. The transcript decides, not the loudest voice.
-
THU
Architecture options priced against the prototype. Build vs. buy, in numbers.
-
FRI
Scope review: what release one proves, what waits, what dies.
ENGAGEMENTS AT THIS STAGE
What’s on the menu.
The workshops, sprints and engagements we run at this stage — scoped to where you are, not a fixed package.
- Design & UX
- Service Design
- Rapid Prototyping
- Cloud Strategy
- Product Management
- Business Model Innovation
- Value Proposition Design
- Design Sprint
PROOF, NOT PROMISES
Define inside one engagement.
Wk 4
riskiest flows user-tested by
A pan-European insurance venture · INSURANCE · PLATFORM
- THE ASK
- A digital insurance product for multiple markets — with regulators, underwriters, and engineers each holding a piece of the answer.
- THE TURN
- Prototype testing put the riskiest flows in front of real users before production engineering started. The blueprint exposed what operations had to support from day one.
- SHIPPED
- Release one shipped against a scope every party had already signed. The flows users failed in testing were reworked on the prototype — not in production.
WHO SHOWS UP
Named people. One accountable team.
The team you meet is the team that does the work — cross-border, senior, and accountable by name. This is who define brings into the room:
- Product designer — lead
- Product manager
- Solution architect
Martin Engdahl
Co-Founder & COO
“Definition decides the operating model — so the COO is in the room.”
THE HANDOFF → STAGE 03
Is it being built well — and can I see it?
Define hands Develop a shape it can commit to: brief, prototype, blueprint, and plan. The build inherits confidence, not assumptions.
Related capabilities
ENTRY OFFER
Definition Sprint
- 3–6 weeks
- Fixed scope
- Prototype included
For teams that know their bet and need it buildable: a signed brief, a user-tested prototype, a service blueprint, and a roadmap engineering will actually commit to.
Brief, prototype, and blueprint are yours — whoever you build with.