STEP 2
Work Backwards from Each Journey
This is the core of BackBuild. Take each feature, one at a time, and ask:
“What needs to be true for this feature to exist on launch day?”
You work backwards through things like:
- Data needs
- API requirements
- Business logic
- Multi-state design
- Legal/compliance
- Content
- Backend workflows
- 3rd-party integration constraints
- User research questions
- System prerequisites
Documenting and connecting as you go. It should look like a mind map or web that you can colour-code and organise into themes. You’ll start to see important connections as you go.
NOTE: Do not go too deep. The goal is to capture areas of importance to give team members a map and points for consideration.
Example: Banking App Home Screen
To show the credit score card, you must have:
- An API connection to the credit bureau
- An authentication contract
- States for: No Data, Low Score, Medium Score, High Score
- A rule for refreshing score
- Error handling
- A design for all states
- Research proving users understand the component
- Business logic
Each of these items becomes a dependency behind the future state.
You do this for every journey.
Now you can see:
- The real complexity
- The unknowns
- The interdependencies
- What must come first
- What can be done in parallel
Most teams only discover these things too late.
Activities
- Journey-by-journey backward thinking
- Brainstorm: “What needs to be true for this to work?”
Frameworks / Tools
- Mind maps
- Future-state journey mapping
- Feature → Need matrix
Outputs
- Broad dependency list for each journey
- Early risk/unknowns list
- “Must be true” statements per feature
Who attends
- Product Lead
- Designer
- Lead Engineer
- Architect
- SME (if the domain is complex)
How long
- 2-3 hours
Notes
This is the most collaborative workshop in BackBuild.
You will not capture everything in one go, that is normal.