Decide how your product behaves when it matters, from alerting strategy and use case definition through requirements and prototypes.
For teams defining alerting, escalation, or emergency behavior where there is no established pattern to follow.
When the product should alert, and when it should stay quiet
How the product behaves across user states and device states
How escalation works, and who it reaches
What information travels with the alert
The wording of prompts, questions, and confirmations
How the handoff to responders is structured
What the product does when connectivity or location is uncertain
Which behaviors need a fallback, and what that fallback is
We agree on what the product needs to do, who it affects downstream, and what would change the answer.
I work from the research, analytics, incident data, and operational reality already available, and name what is still unknown.
I map behavior across user states, device states, and the conditions the product will meet, so the edges are explicit rather than assumed.
I write the requirements, escalation logic, and wording, including the cases that are easy to leave undefined.
I make it concrete enough to review, then check it against people who would use it or receive its output.
Most product decisions can be revised after launch. A question asked at the moment someone needs help cannot.
The order of the questions, the words chosen, and what the product does when it is unsure all shape what a dispatcher knows and how quickly a responder can move. Those are product decisions, and they deserve the same rigor as the engineering underneath them.
I define that behavior explicitly, ground it in how emergency response actually works, and make it concrete enough for engineering to build and for your team to argue with.
Definition work produces requirements, specifications, and recommendations. It is not a certification, a regulatory approval, or a guarantee of product safety.