What you need before you start.
Dependencies organized by type — with links to the methods that require them.
Managing Dependencies
Early communication: Discuss dependencies with stakeholders during kickoff to ensure alignment before work begins.
Resource allocation: Confirm access to users, tools, and documentation before starting the initiative.
Track ownership: Use a shared tracker or wiki, such as Jira or Confluence (with AI assistance), to assign dependency owners and surface blockers early.
People
Cross-functional team availability
Stakeholder availability for reviews
Representative users for testing
PM and engineering for collaboration
Stakeholders across functions, available for interviews
Participants who can be observed in their working environment
Evaluators with usability expertise, ideally not the designers, each reviewing alone first
Accessibility expertise, ideally including assistive-technology users
Information & Data
Validated problem statement
Synthesized research inputs
Defined success criteria
Success metrics agreed before launch
Existing customer feedback (support tickets, NPS/CSAT comments, reviews)
Competitor and market information
Content inventory or a draft information structure
Enough responses or traffic to estimate results with stated uncertainty
Technical constraints and feasibility
Development timelines and sprint schedules
Tools & Access
Analytics platforms (e.g., LogRocket, Pendo, FullStory, Amplitude)
Testing tools (e.g., Hubble, Maze, Microsoft Teams)
Survey tooling (e.g., Qualtrics, Typeform, Google Forms)
Experimentation or feature-flag tooling
Assistive technologies and accessibility checking tools (e.g., screen readers, automated checkers)
Collaboration tools (e.g., FigJam, Confluence, Miro)
Live product access for post-launch evaluation
Time & Approvals
Time to iterate based on review feedback
Approved initiative scope
Sufficient time for synthesis collaboration
Permission and consent to observe work or use customer data
Time to run a test for its planned duration