2025-06-21 · Clara Mendoza

Prototype goals your stakeholders can actually sign

Engineering milestones (“auth service v2”) rarely earn executive sign-off. Stakeholders approve outcomes: reduced support load, faster onboarding, measurable cycle-time movement.

Rewrite prototype goals as observable behaviors: time-to-first-value, error rate under load, or successful completion of a scripted user path. Attach a measurement method even if instrumentation is stubbed.

Run a 45-minute validation flow: present three goals, capture objections, record deferrals explicitly. The deferral list is as valuable as the approved set — it prevents silent scope creep.

Teams that skip the deferral step often rebuild the same feature twice. Document what you are not proving in this prototype phase.

#product#validation

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