Product Thinking: Episode 250

Building Smart: Clarity Over Perfection

Host: Melissa Perri
Date: October 3, 2025

Episode Overview

In this “Dear Melissa” Q&A episode, host Melissa Perri tackles a fundamental product management dilemma: “How do you know when a feature is ready for delivery?” Addressing a question from a junior product manager, Melissa goes deep on balancing clarity and agility, emphasizing that successful delivery isn’t about pursuing perfection, but about creating enough context and validation for confident, collaborative development. Along the way, she introduces actionable frameworks, risk-based thinking, and red flags for “not ready” features—all in her trademark direct, encouraging style.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Real Question: Framework or Intuition?

• Melissa distinguishes between formal frameworks (like “ready for dev” in Agile) and a more adaptive, nuanced approach she prefers. Overly rigid frameworks can stifle collaboration and lead to over-specification.
• Quote: “We always want to balance: we need more clarity with we’re overthinking this… for me, the answer isn’t a rigid framework. It’s more about understanding what types of confidence you need based on your specific situation.” (04:50)

2. Validation vs. Specification: The Two Gates

Melissa details two critical gates every feature must pass before delivery:

A. Validation Gate

• Goal: Do we have enough confidence this is worth building?
• Questions to Address:
  • What evidence do we have users want this?
  • Have we considered cost, user impact, technical risk, and business risk?
• Validation Tactics: User interviews, prototypes, A/B testing, competitive analysis.
• Key Idea: Required validation depth should be proportional to risk.
• Melissa’s Take: Full confidence is rarely attainable; accept “good enough” validation based on risk profile.
  • Quote: “You will never be 100% confident... think about the risk profile. The higher the risk, the need for stronger validation.” (08:05)

B. Specification Gate

• Goal: Is it clear enough for development to start?
• Core Question: Can a developer read the spec and understand the task without guessing?
• What’s Needed: User flows (‘happy paths’), data requirements, major integration points, and clear acceptance criteria.
• Not Needed: Pixel-perfect design, every edge case up front (these can emerge through iteration).
• Quote: “You do need to largely have the concept available, start to understand the flow, start to understand the functionality, and then you can usually iterate and optimize that way.” (15:03)

3. Balancing Confidence and Speed

• Determine “good enough” by asking: How big is the risk? How easy is it to test and iterate? Will more specification materially impact delivery?
• Quote: “If you’re like, I’m 60% confident, and your risk is medium to high, that’s actually pretty good.” (12:45)

4. Red Flags: When a Feature Isn’t Ready for Dev

Melissa identifies common signs you’re not ready to hand off:

• Developers repeatedly ask the same clarifying questions—this indicates poor context.
• The team debates fundamental assumptions, not implementation details.
• Testing in development reveals it fails for too many users/edge cases.
• The solution doesn’t scale or critical flows are undefined.
  • Quote: “If developers are asking you the same clarifying questions over and over, you did a really bad job building context up front, and that’s on you.” (19:40)

5. Tips for Collaborative and Adaptive Specification

• Know your team: Junior or external devs may need more specificity.
• Iterate on flows, UI/UX, and small bugs during development rather than trying to ‘finish’ the spec in advance.
• Success comes from team communication and openness to iteration—not exhaustive documentation.

6. The Art of Product Leadership: Clarity Over Perfection

• Avoid analysis paralysis; perfect specifications are unattainable and unnecessary.
• Define “good enough,” foster context, and keep adapting as you go.
  • Quote: “It does not have to be perfect, but it should be defined enough where we can all understand it and you’re building that context.” (24:50)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Context | |-----------|-------|---------| |04:50 |“We always want to balance: we need more clarity with we’re overthinking this… for me, the answer isn’t a rigid framework. It’s more about understanding what types of confidence you need based on your specific situation.”| On choosing between frameworks and flexible, risk-based evaluation.| |08:05 |“You will never be 100% confident... think about the risk profile. The higher the risk, the need for stronger validation.”| On accepting uncertainty in validation.| |12:45 |“If you’re like, I’m 60% confident, and your risk is medium to high, that’s actually pretty good.”| On what level of confidence is enough to proceed.| |15:03 |“You do need to largely have the concept available, start to understand the flow, start to understand the functionality, and then you can usually iterate and optimize that way.”| On what level of specification is required for development to start.| |19:40 |“If developers are asking you the same clarifying questions over and over, you did a really bad job building context up front, and that’s on you.”| On a warning sign that a feature isn’t ready for development.| |24:50 |“It does not have to be perfect, but it should be defined enough where we can all understand it and you’re building that context.”| Closing advice on the clarity vs. perfection tradeoff.|

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:37 — Introduction & Listener Question
• 03:40 — Frameworks vs. Intuition in getting “ready for dev”
• 05:20 — The Validation Gate: De-risking “why” and “what”
• 09:50 — Risk Profiles: How much validation is enough?
• 12:30 — What is “good enough” confidence?
• 13:00 — The Specification Gate: What developers need to start
• 16:00 — Iterating on UX and flows, working with designers and devs
• 19:00 — Red Flags: When you’re not ready for delivery
• 22:30 — Adapting to your team’s needs and context
• 24:00 — Closing: Clarity over Perfection

Takeaways for Product Managers

• Shift your mindset from “completeness” to “clarity and confidence.”
• Think in gates: validate the why/what first, then specify the how just enough to start.
• Tune your validation and specs to the risks at hand; perfection is not the goal.
• Collaborate and iterate openly with your team—questions, not documentation, are your best signal.
• Context is your job as a PM; don’t make developers guess.

For more Q&A, or to submit your own question, visit dearmelissa.com.