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Drafting a Discovery Brief

A Discovery Brief is the required artifact for Stage 2 (Discovery) of the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC). Its purpose is to prove that a problem is real, clearly understood, and worth further investment before committing to specification and build.

Recommended: Use product-os

The fastest and most consistent way to draft a Discovery Brief at CXT is to use the /discovery-brief skill in product-os.

How it works:

  1. Open product-os (Claude desktop with the product-os project)

  2. Run /discovery-brief

  3. Claude asks a focused set of questions about the problem, the evidence, and user impact — one conversation, no blank page

  4. It scores the brief using the Discovery Diagnostic Quality Score (DDQS) — a 0–10 scale measuring problem confidence and interview coverage

  5. A DDQS ≥ 6 is required to advance to Specification; below 6, Claude flags exactly what's missing

  6. When complete, product-os offers to publish the Discovery Brief directly to Confluence under the correct product area

DDQS formula:

Component 

Points

Confidence Score (how well-validated is the problem?)

1–3

Interview Points (qualifying customer conversations)

0–3

Evidence quality, stakeholder alignment, opportunity sizing

0–4

Total needed to advance

≥ 6
 

The DDQS is a quality gate, not a bureaucratic hurdle. If you can't hit 6, it usually means the problem isn't well-enough understood to build confidently — which is exactly what discovery is for.

Manual Path: Use the Template

If product-os is not available, use the Discovery Brief Template in Confluence.

Tips for the manual path:

  • Complete Part I (Opportunity Proposal) before any stakeholder review — this section establishes that the problem is real and worth exploring

  • Part II (Solution Exploration) is typically completed after at least 2–3 qualifying customer conversations

  • Use the (WIP) Discovery Brief EXAMPLE as a reference for tone and depth

  • Once drafted, see Converting a Discovery Brief to a Design Brief when ready to hand off to UX

After the Brief

Once the Discovery Brief is complete:

  1. ✅ Publish to Confluence under Products and Initiatives → [Product Area]

  2. ✅ Update the Productboard feature status: set to Candidate if DDQS ≥ 4, hold at New Idea if still early

  3. ✅ Link the Confluence page to the Productboard feature card

  4. ✅ Record interview count and confidence score in the brief header

  5. ✅ If DDQS ≥ 6, run /prd-generator in product-os to begin the PRD — it will load the Discovery Brief as context automatically

Reference