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Sprint 0 - Week 0 - An Epic Tale of Short Stories

Agile Team Kickoff: Feature Design Document

Your team will collaborate to create an initial design document outlining the epic of your feature. This task will guide your team through the planning of first Agile sprint and help you clearly define your project's scope, purpose, and value. Begin by creating a shared Google Doc for initial brainstorming and drafting. Ultimately, this document will be converted into a markdown file (feature-design.md) in your team's repository under the docs directory.

For features, please see our Call for Projects this Spring 2025. We are integrating AI functionality into the CSXL web application! All features must utilize the OpenAI LLM API in some way that adds intelligence to .

Important Note on AI:
Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard) are strictly prohibited in crafting your design document. This exercise focuses on teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and a thorough understanding of the problem you aim to solve. Detection of generative AI writing in submissions risks a team score of 0% for this sprint.

Required Sections of Your Document

1. Title & Team

  • Create a descriptive, engaging title for your feature. You are encouraged to go beyond the original RFP title.
  • Clearly list all team members with their full names and links to their GitHub repositories.

2. Overview

  • Clearly restate the purpose, value, and context of your chosen feature.
  • Include your own interpretation of the problem and explain the value your solution will provide to users.
  • Keep this brief and impactful (1-2 concise paragraphs).

3. Key Personas

  • Identify and briefly describe the 2-4 primary personas your feature targets.
  • For each persona, clearly articulate:
    • Role: Who are they, generally?
    • Goals: What do they aim to achieve using your feature?
    • Pain Points: What specific problems does your feature help resolve for them?

4. User Stories

  • Write user stories following this template:
As a [persona], I want [to perform some action] 
so that [I can achieve some goal or benefit].

Acceptance Criteria:
- Clear, testable criteria describing what completing this story looks like.
- Criteria 2
- Criteria 3 (as necessary)
  • Organize user stories by persona and prioritize them by:
    • Necessity (Essential for minimum viable product? Nice-to-have?)
    • Frequency of use (Daily, weekly, occasional?)
    • Importance to user value
  • Clearly label and separate your stories by persona for clarity.

5. Wireframes / Mockups / Sample Interactions

  • For your top 3 critical user stories, create clear wireframes illustrating each step of the story.
    • If your feature involves content managed by instructors, CSXL staff, career services, etc., then one of your top stories should also include what the process looks like for this persona to add and edit this content.
  • Use Figma to produce mid-fidelity wireframes/prototypes to ensure consistency and a professional appearance. Export your Figma frames and add them to your epic design document.
  • Include a brief but clear explanation beneath each wireframe:
    • What interaction is happening?
    • What action(s) are users performing?
    • What is the outcome or expected result?
  • For interactions where there is natural language or integration with the large-language model, provide two to threee different samples of what the user might prompt with and a reasonable response to expect (either language or UI) from the system.

Collaboration Advice

  • Discuss regularly as a team. Consensus early on saves rework later.
  • Use simple language to clearly express ideas.
  • Get frequent feedback from each other—be direct, constructive, and supportive.

Submission Requirements

Your final document must:

  • Be written in your own words—no AI-generated content.
  • Clearly demonstrate a thoughtful understanding of user needs, product vision, and realistic implementation.
  • Be neatly organized, professionally formatted, and submitted as a PDF.