Method

Establish before you build

Four stages. They follow in this order because each one makes the next decidable — that is the only reason they are numbered.

1. Establish

   Read the funnel data as it is, go through the journey myself on a real phone, listen to the teams who receive the complaints. We look for where people stop, not for where the interface displeases.

   Output: the drop-off points, quantified and ranked.

2. Decide

   Not everything gets fixed. We keep what has a measurable effect and a known cost, and set the rest aside, writing down why — that is what stops it being prescribed again six months later.

   Output: a short, ordered list, with the expected effect and what was set aside.

3. Specify

   Specifications a development team can carry out without coming back with three questions: business rules, edge cases, error states, and acceptance criteria that can be checked one by one.

   Output: functional specifications and acceptance criteria.

4. Deliver and measure

   I stay until production. What is not measured afterwards has not been delivered: we check whether the drop-off point has moved, and we accept the verdict, including when it is negative.

   Output: the production release, and the gap between the expected effect and the observed effect.