We needed a way to manage workspace changes - new agents, MCP integrations, folder restructures. The kind of changes that seem small but compound into chaos if nobody tracks them.
The traditional answer: mandatory Product Brief -> Design Doc -> PRD pipeline. Write the brief. Get it approved. Then you can build.
We tried that. The AI would refuse to implement things without a PRD. Developers (including me) would get frustrated and just skip the process entirely.
What works instead
The AI offers to draft a Product Brief when it detects non-trivial work. But it doesn’t block you.
“This looks like a significant workspace change. Want me to draft a Product Brief first, or should we just build it?”
That’s it. No gates. No mandatory steps. Just a suggestion at the right moment.
Why it works
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The brief writes itself. The AI drafts it in 30 seconds based on what you’ve already described. You’re not doing extra work - you’re reviewing a summary of work you were going to do anyway.
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It catches scope creep early. When you see “Problem, Solution, Scope, Risks” laid out before building, you sometimes realize the scope is bigger than you thought. That’s the value.
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People adopt it voluntarily. When the brief saves time (catches a bad assumption, clarifies scope), people use it again. When it doesn’t, they skip it. Natural selection for useful process.
The broader principle
Any process that requires enforcement to get adoption is probably not saving enough time to justify its cost. If your team keeps skipping a step, the step is the problem - not the team.