Hey spice enthusiasts and product nerds!

I’m excited to share that we’ve officially crossed a major milestone in our Spice Sage journey this week. After months of customer interviews, market research, and countless cups of chai (for inspiration, of course), we’ve successfully completed our Requirements phase and received the green light from senior management to move forward!

What We’ve Accomplished So Far

The Requirements phase was all about validating our initial hypothesis: that home cooks are frustrated with stale, uninspiring spices and lack access to authentic global flavors. And wow, did we find validation!

Our research highlighted some eye-opening statistics:

• 73% of home cooks have a “spice graveyard” of expired jars
• 84% want to explore global cuisines but don’t know where to start
• 62% feel overwhelmed by traditional bulk spice purchasing

We’ve identified our key personas (hello, Curious Carla and Adventurous Alex!), mapped out customer journeys, and documented product requirements that directly address these pain points. The team worked tirelessly to develop preliminary scheduling and resource estimates, and I’m particularly proud of the ethnographic studies that gave us deep insights into how people actually interact with spices in their kitchens.

Entering the Scoping Phase: Where the Magic Happens

Now we’re diving into the Scoping phase, which is where things get really exciting. This is where we transform market requirements into concrete feature specifications that our development team can build.

As your product manager, here’s what I’ll be focusing on in the coming weeks:

Defining Our Feature Set with Laser Focus

We’ve got a massive list of cool things we could build, but the art is in deciding what we should build first. I’m working closely with our engineering team to finalize our feature list with clear priorities. The freshness tracking system and subscription platform are emerging as our top priorities based on customer feedback.

Creating Detailed User Stories

I’m currently transforming all those customer interviews into structured user stories. Instead of generic requirements like “users want fresh spices,” we’re creating specific scenarios like “As Adventurous Alex, I want to know exactly when my turmeric was harvested so I can be confident in its potency when making golden milk for my family.”

Communicating the Vision Company-Wide

One of my biggest responsibilities right now is ensuring everyone at Spice Sage understands exactly what we’re building and why. I’ve scheduled a company-wide presentation for next week to walk through our feature set, user personas, and the market opportunity we’re addressing.

Setting Implementation Guidelines

I’m collaborating with our UX designer to create interface mockups and with engineering to define technical specs. This ensures we’re all aligned on not just what we’re building, but how it will work in practice.

What Success Looks Like

By the end of this Scoping phase, we’ll have:

• A comprehensive feature list with clear priorities
• Detailed user stories that guide development
• A release plan with realistic timelines
• Design specifications for our core features
• Company-wide alignment on our product direction

The gate review at the end of this phase will evaluate whether we’ve defined everything clearly enough to move into full Development mode. It’s a challenging process, but I’m confident we’ve got the right team and the right vision to create something truly special.

What’s Next?

I’ll be posting weekly updates on our progress, including some sneak peeks at our UX mockups once they’re ready for sharing. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what features you’re most excited about. Drop a comment below or shoot me an email!

Until next time, keep exploring those flavors!

— The Spice Sage Product Team