Product

Quality Planning Canvas

Four boxes for defining what quality means for a feature, before any code gets written.

What it is

A 2x2 grid: Key Features (what's actually being built now), Risks & Failures (foreseeable failure modes beyond bugs — operational, security, usability), Quality Scenarios (concrete, testable situations that would prove or disprove the feature meets expectations), and Future Improvements (legitimate ideas parked for later, not lost). It runs after a Lean Canvas and before UX/UI design starts.

Reach for it when

• A feature brief exists but nobody has agreed what 'quality' actually means for it.
• Test cases are getting written before the team has agreed on the risks they're testing for.
• A good idea for later keeps getting lost because there's nowhere to park it without blocking the current release.

Running it

1. Recap the feature or product from the preceding Lean Canvas.
2. Populate Key Features together, then brainstorm Risks & Failures individually and cluster duplicates.
3. For each major risk, draft a Quality Scenario that would surface it.
4. Park legitimate but out-of-scope ideas in Future Improvements, then hand the canvas to whoever writes the test strategy next.