How to Complete a Growth Factor

Every Growth Factor is completed the same way.

All 37 Growth Factors run through one workflow. Copy the template, put it in your Product History File, register the Project, then work the content through with Sage_AI until the Factor is true for your product. The workflow does not change from one Factor to the next. Only the content does.

This page documents that shared workflow. Each Growth Factor detail page adds only what is specific to that Factor.

What you need first

Three things carry the work. Set them up once and they serve all 37 Factors.

• A Product History File. The folder structure in Google Drive that holds every document the product will ever produce, with a folder for each of the five phases.
• A ProductSage account, which is optional. The free tier seeds all 37 Growth Factors as Projects and tracks where each one stands, and it is the easier way to work. Without one, the project_registry tab of your Technical Specification Data Sheet does the same job.
• Sage_AI. The assistant configured with your product context, which drafts the documentation with you.

If none of these exist yet, go to Start Here. It gets you to a working Sage_AI, and Sage_AI then sets up the rest with you through Product Management Infrastructure, the first Growth Factor in Discovery.

The workflow

Copy the template

Open the Growth Factors page and click through to the Factor you are working. The detail page carries the template link along with the rest of the resources for that Factor. Copy the Google Doc template from there. If you are already in ProductSage, the project detail page carries the same Copy Template link.

Move it into the Product History File

Put the new document in the phase folder that matches the Factor. A Discovery Factor goes in the Discovery folder, a Planning Factor in Planning, and so on. Filing it correctly now is what makes it findable later.

Replace the global variables

Every template carries variables that stand in for your product information. Replace all of them.

On your first Growth Factor you also set two values that follow the product from here on. The Product Number is a sequential id that keeps multiple products apart. Use 1 if this is your first. The Product Shortcode is an abbreviation that stands in for the product name in file names and project numbers.

Register the Project

In ProductSage, open the project detail page for this Growth Factor. Paste the document link into the Documentation URL field, and set the Project Status to In Progress. Without an account, record the document ID and the status in the project_registry tab of your Technical Specification Data Sheet. Either way, the Project now points at real work rather than an empty template.

Give Sage_AI the document

Paste the link to the document into your Sage_AI chat, so the assistant reads the current version live from Drive rather than working from memory. Do not upload a copy. An uploaded copy is a snapshot and shows nothing you change later. The AI Meta for the template is the one item that goes into Project knowledge, and it comes out when the Factor is done.

Work the content through with Sage_AI

Prompt Sage_AI to complete the documentation with you. It helps you fill the sections, names the components that are missing or need revision, and plans the tasks that have to be done for the Factor to be true for your product. The blank page is where most product work stalls, and this is the step that removes it.

Execute the plan

The document is not the goal. The Growth Factor is true for your product when the work behind the document is done. Complete the tasks the plan named, then bring the document back into line with what actually happened.

Review, approve, and close

Move the document through review and collect the signatures the Factor calls for. Update the Project Status as it goes. When the phase is reviewed, the Project closes.

Project status through the workflow

The status on the Project tells anyone looking exactly where the work stands.

• Planned. Seeded and waiting. No work has started.
• In Progress. The document exists and the work is underway.
• Reviewing. The content is complete and is under review, or signatures are pending.
• Active. Reviewed and agreed. The Factor is live for the product.
• Revising. An active Factor is being brought current as the product changes.
• Complete. Closed at the Phase Review.

What changes from Factor to Factor

The workflow above is fixed. What varies is the content, the template, and what has to be true at the end.

Each Growth Factor detail page carries that. What the Factor is, why it matters, what it delivers, what it includes, and the gaps that show up when it is skipped. The step by step how for a specific topic lives in the Knowledge Base, linked from the Factor page.

Start where your product is

The phases run in order, but real work rarely does. Complete the Factors that fit your priorities. They still lock into the same framework, and nothing is wasted.

Read the product journey to see the whole path, or go straight to the Growth Factors and pick your starting point.