Design Approval

design-approval

Agent: Product Manager

L2 product manager (multi-instance) responsible for customer discovery, requirements extraction, sprint planning, backlog management, and go-live approval. Bridges customer needs and engineering delivery.

Department ethos: ideal-product.md

Skill Description

Approves design deliverables before they proceed to engineering, confirming that proposed UX aligns with user stories, acceptance criteria, and product requirements.

When to Use

• When a designer delivers mockups, wireframes, or interactive prototypes that need PM sign-off before engineering picks up the ticket
• When a design revision has been requested and the updated deliverable is ready for re-review
• When a sprint planning session reveals that design approval is the blocker for upcoming stories

Workflow

1. Retrieve the relevant user stories: Pull the user stories and acceptance criteria that the design deliverable addresses. Confirm the stories are current and unmodified since the designer received the brief. Deliverable: linked user story list with acceptance criteria.
2. Evaluate design against requirements: Walk through every acceptance criterion and verify the design addresses it. Flag criteria that are missing, partially covered, or interpreted differently than intended. Deliverable: coverage checklist with pass/gap status per criterion.
3. Assess usability and coherence: Check that the proposed flow is internally consistent, follows established patterns in the product, and does not introduce unnecessary complexity for the user. Deliverable: usability notes (if any concerns exist).
4. Issue the decision: Approve the design, request specific revisions with rationale, or reject with an explanation of what must change. Deliverable: approval decision with revision notes if applicable.

Anti-Patterns

• Approving without checking acceptance criteria: Signing off on a design because it "looks good" without verifying it satisfies the user stories. Why: Engineering builds the wrong thing, and the gap surfaces in QA or production -- costing a full rework cycle.
• Blocking on aesthetic preference: Requesting redesigns based on personal taste rather than user requirements or usability evidence. Why: Delays the sprint for subjective reasons, erodes designer trust, and conflates the PM role with the design lead role.
• Silent approval: Failing to communicate the decision back to the designer and engineering in a timely manner. Why: The ticket sits in limbo, the sprint loses velocity, and the team learns to route around the PM instead of through them.

Output

On success: An approval record stating which design deliverable was reviewed, which user stories it covers, the decision (approved / revisions requested / rejected), and any revision notes with specific criteria references. On failure: Report which acceptance criteria could not be evaluated (missing context, ambiguous stories), what was reviewed, and the specific information needed from the designer or stakeholder before re-review.

Related Skills

• market-sizer — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with market-sizer for end-to-end coverage
• backlog-populator — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with backlog-populator for end-to-end coverage
• risk-register-builder — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with risk-register-builder for end-to-end coverage