Content Structure Principles (Product Brief)

When to load: During Content & Language workflow, after SEO keywords, before synthesis Agent: Saga (or any PB facilitator)

Why This Matters

Without understanding the client's vision for what their product should contain, later phases break down:

Scenario Outlining designs user flows through pages that may not exist in the client's mental model
Page Design creates sections the client never envisioned
Dream Up generates designs misaligned with expectations
Costly misalignment surfaces late when it's expensive to fix

The gap we're filling: Business goals and user psychology (Trigger Map) tell us WHY. Content structure principles tell us WHAT the client envisions the product containing.

Principles, not specifications. We're capturing strategic direction here, not wireframes. "Services should be easily accessible from the main menu" is a principle. "Three-column grid with 200px service cards" is a specification that belongs in Phase 4.

What We Need to Know

Satisfaction criteria — by the end you should be able to answer:

What type of product is this? Single-page site, multi-page site, app, platform?
What content does the client envision? Pages, sections, content areas — at whatever detail level they have
What must be immediately prominent? The content priorities that drive the first impression
How should users navigate? Any principles about finding content (not nav design specifics)
What should definitely NOT be included? Explicit anti-patterns and scope boundaries
How clear is the client's vision? Are they specific, exploring, or completely open?

You DON'T need:

Detailed wireframes or layouts
Exact section specifications
Technical implementation details
Final decisions from a client who's still exploring

Adaptive Depth

Match the client's readiness:

Client is specific ("I want a single page with hero, services, reviews, map, contact") → Capture their detailed vision, note it as strong direction
Client is exploring ("Maybe 4-5 pages? Not sure yet") → Capture what they know, flag open questions for Phase 4
Client is blank ("I don't know, you tell me") → Note the openness, capture any preferences that emerge, leave structure for later phases

All three are valid outcomes. Don't force decisions the client isn't ready to make.

Types of Information to Surface

Product type and scope:

Single-page vs multi-page
How many pages roughly (if multi-page)
Any sub-pages or sections within pages
What's MVP vs future

Content that must exist:

Core content areas (services, about, contact, etc.)
What specific information users need to find
Content that serves business goals directly

Content hierarchy:

What must be visible immediately (no scrolling)
What's important but secondary
What's nice-to-have

Navigation and access principles:

How should users find key content?
Should anything be reachable from everywhere?
Mobile vs desktop considerations

Scope boundaries:

What is explicitly excluded (no blog, no e-commerce, etc.)
What's deferred to a future phase
What the client has seen elsewhere and doesn't want

Documenting the Outcome

If client is specific:

## Content Structure Principles

### Structure Type
Single-page site — all content on one scrollable page

### User's Vision
"Tourists on phones should find three things fast: can you fix my vehicle,
where are you, what's your number. Everything else is secondary."

### Content Priorities
**Must be prominent (visible without scroll):**
- Phone number
- Vehicle types serviced
- Location + hours

**Important but secondary:**
- About / story
- Certifications
- Reviews

### Navigation Principles
- Contact (phone) reachable from anywhere
- Mobile-first — most users on phones
- No complex menus needed

### Not Included
- No online booking (phone-first approach)
- No blog
- No auto-play media

### Clarity Level
Very specific — strong vision based on user needs

If client is exploring:

## Content Structure Principles

### Structure Type
Exploring — leaning toward multi-page (4-5 pages), open to recommendation

### User's Vision
"We need to explain our services and make it easy to contact us.
Maybe separate pages for each service category? Not sure yet."

### Content Priorities
**Must be prominent:**
- Service offerings
- Contact methods

**Secondary:**
- To be determined in Phase 4

### Navigation Principles
- "Services should be easy to find"
- "People should be able to contact us from any page"

### Not Included
- No e-commerce

### Clarity Level
Exploring — rough direction, specifics to emerge in UX phase

If client is blank:

## Content Structure Principles

### Structure Type
TBD — to be determined in Phase 4 based on Trigger Map insights

### User's Vision
Client exploring options — looking for strategic recommendations

### Content Priorities
**Must be prominent:**
- [To be determined]

### Navigation Principles
- None stated yet

### Not Included
- None stated

### Clarity Level
Open — awaiting recommendations from UX phase

Red Flags

"Make it like [competitor]" → Probe what specifically they like about the competitor's structure. Avoid copying without understanding WHY it works.

Feature shopping ("newsletter signup, social links, testimonial slider, chat widget...") → Redirect to principles: "Those are features — what's the core experience users need?"

Over-specification (pixel-level layout details) → Acknowledge their vision, capture the principle: "I love that level of detail — let me capture the principle so we nail it in design phase."

"Everything is most important" → Gentle pressure test: "If a mobile user has 5 seconds, what's the ONE thing they must find?"

This guide ensures Saga captures the client's product vision at their level of readiness — from detailed to blank — without forcing premature decisions or missing strategic direction.

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