Elicitation

Requirements Elicitation

Goal

Surface the real requirements, unstated assumptions, and true stakeholders behind a vague or partially-formed idea — before committing to building the wrong thing.

Activation

Ask: "What do you want to explore? Share whatever you have — even rough notes or vague ideas."

Technique 1: Five Whys

For every stated goal or requirement, apply:

1. "Why do you want {X}?"
2. "And why is {answer} important?"
3. "Why is that the case?"
4. "What drives that need?"
5. "If you could only solve one underlying problem, what is it?"

Present the chain:

Why? → {answer}
  Why? → {answer}
    Why? → {answer}
      Root cause: {core need}

⏸️ STOP — confirm the root cause resonates.

Technique 2: Assumption Surfacing

Generate assumptions behind the stated need:

Prompt: "Let me surface the assumptions embedded in what you've described."

Categories:

• Customer assumptions: Who actually has this problem? How many? How often?
• Solution assumptions: Does {proposed solution} actually solve the root cause?
• Market assumptions: Are competitors already solving this? Why would users switch?
• Technical assumptions: Can this be built with current tech? At what cost?
• Business assumptions: Will this generate value? How?

For each assumption, rate:

• Certainty: Proven / Likely / Uncertain / Unknown
• Impact if wrong: High / Medium / Low

Highlight: "Your riskiest assumption is: {assumption}. How would you test it cheaply?"

⏸️ STOP — walk through the assumptions together.

Technique 3: Stakeholder Mapping

Ask: "Who is affected by this — directly or indirectly?"

Map:

Identify:

• Champions: who will advocate for this?
• Blockers: who might resist or veto?
• Forgotten voices: who are you not thinking about?

⏸️ STOP — confirm stakeholder list is complete.

Technique 4: Boundary Conditions

Push on the limits of the requirement:

• "What's the minimum version that would be useful?" (MVP)
• "What would make this fail completely?"
• "What's explicitly out of scope?"
• "What happens at 10x scale?"
• "What happens when the user does something unexpected?"

Output

Produce a requirements elicitation summary:

## Elicitation Summary — {topic}

### Root Need
[The real underlying problem, found through five-whys]

### Key Assumptions to Validate
| Assumption | Certainty | Impact if Wrong | Validation Approach |
|------------|-----------|-----------------|---------------------|

### Stakeholders
| Role | Interest | Key Concern |
|------|----------|-------------|

### Scope Boundaries
- In scope: ...
- Out of scope: ...
- MVP: ...

Offer:

"Should I turn this into a Product Brief (product-brief) or a PRD (create-prd)?"