The product doc that powered Hopscotch
At Hopscotch we were rigorous with our product. We had to be. A small team, and over 10 years of features meant that the product could easily become bloated and confusing—the opposite of our goal.
How did we keep shipping a great product over such a long time period? We developed a process based on the scientific method. Any project, whether it be a community initiative, a new feature in Hopscotch, or changing the way something worked, had to begin with a product doc that included a hypothesis, success metrics, and a plan for failure.
Answering the questions in the doc helped us approach each change in the spirit of inquiry. It made the project an experiment, not an improvement, until proven otherwise.