# Content Structure Principles (Product Brief)

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

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## 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.

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## What We Need to Know

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

1. **What type of product is this?** Single-page site, multi-page site, app, platform?
2. **What content does the client envision?** Pages, sections, content areas — at whatever detail level they have
3. **What must be immediately prominent?** The content priorities that drive the first impression
4. **How should users navigate?** Any principles about finding content (not nav design specifics)
5. **What should definitely NOT be included?** Explicit anti-patterns and scope boundaries
6. **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

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## 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:**
```markdown
## 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:**
```markdown
## 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:**
```markdown
## 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?"

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*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.*