Ideas & Artificial Intelligence
Connect the feature to the condition it depends on
Imagine a fictional team suggesting an availability badge beside each item in an equipment-borrowing form. The suggestion sounds simple, but the badge would need a reliable way to reflect returns and new loans. This original worksheet turns that dependency into a discussion record. It is a planning example, not a report of a built or tested feature.
01
Describe the proposed interaction in one situation
Start with the person and the moment: someone choosing an item before requesting to borrow it. Write what the badge would show and where it would appear. Avoid extending the proposal into booking, reminders and other features before this interaction has been described. Add a small sketch if it helps make the location clear. The card should let another reader picture the suggestion without assuming that its implementation has already been chosen or that all the supporting information is available.
02
Name the assumption behind the useful appearance
Write that the badge would need current information about whether the item is available. Then identify who or what would update that information when an item is returned. If that process is unknown, record it as an open dependency. A neatly drawn badge can hide this question because its displayed state looks settled. Keeping the assumption beside the sketch makes the missing relationship visible. It also separates the desired interface from the work needed to support the information it would present.
03
Choose a question that can change the proposal
Ask how returns are recorded today and whether that record is available at the moment someone makes a request. Identify who can explain the current process and leave space for their answer. If the information is not maintained, the team might revise the suggestion to show a contact route instead of an availability claim. Record that as a possible response, not an agreed decision. The completed card links the interaction, assumption and next question, giving a reviewer a concrete basis for discussing what should happen next.