Project Lead Guide

Project Lead Guide

As a project lead, you own the full SpecGraph workflow from start to finish. You create the project, trigger the AI steps, coordinate with departments, manage conflict resolution, and oversee implementation. This guide covers everything you need to do at each stage.

Before You Start

Gather your documents. The more raw material you bring to SpecGraph, the better the AI-generated PRD will be. Even rough documents — research notes, competitive analysis, executive briefs — are useful. Aim to have at least one document that describes what you're building and why.

Know your departments. Identify which departments need to be involved. Each department in your organization will receive a survey. If a department isn't relevant to this project, they'll still receive a survey — their survey will just come back empty or with low-priority notes.

Set a realistic deadline. Choose a survey deadline that gives departments enough time to participate thoughtfully. For complex initiatives, 7–10 business days is reasonable. For smaller scopes, 3–5 days may suffice.

Phase 1: Create the Project

1. Navigate to Projects → New Project.
2. Fill in the project name, description, and template.
3. Set the survey deadline.
4. Click Create Project.

Tip: Write a detailed description. The AI reads it when generating the PRD. "New customer portal" tells the AI very little. "A web portal for enterprise customers to manage their subscriptions, access invoices, and submit support tickets — replacing the current email-based process" gives the AI something to work with.

Phase 2: Upload Documents

1. Navigate to the project's Documents page.
2. Upload all relevant source materials (PDF, DOCX, TXT — up to 50MB each).
3. Verify the list is complete before triggering generation.

If you don't have documents ready, you can still proceed — the PRD will be generated from your project description and template alone. The output will be more generic but still useful as a starting point.

Phase 3: Generate the PRD

1. Click Generate PRD on the Documents page.
2. Wait for generation to complete (you'll get a notification — takes 1–2 minutes for large document sets).
3. Read through the generated PRD carefully on the PRD page.
4. Add PRD comments to flag anything that needs clarification before surveys open.

You don't need the PRD to be perfect. Departments will push back on it through their wishes.

Phase 4: Open Surveys

1. Navigate to the Surveys page.
2. Optionally, open Design Survey to review and customize the AI-generated questions.
3. Click Open Surveys.
4. The survey deadline is displayed to all contributors.

During the survey period:

• Monitor the Surveys page for submission status.
• Send reminders to departments that haven't submitted as the deadline approaches.
• Watch new wishes appear on the Wishes page in real time.
• Look out for Concerns and Questions — these may need immediate attention.

Phase 5: Run Conflict Detection

1. Once most surveys are submitted (you don't need 100%), navigate to Surveys and click Close Surveys & Detect Conflicts.
2. Wait for conflict detection to complete.
3. Work through conflicts on the Conflicts page:
   • Read each conflict and its impact analysis.
   • Facilitate discussion in the comment threads.
   • Work toward resolution — vote, discuss, decide.
   • Mark each conflict resolved with the chosen resolution path.
4. All Critical and High conflicts must be resolved before you can proceed.

Phase 6: Unify the PRD

1. Once all blocking conflicts are resolved, the Generate Unified PRD button activates.
2. Click it and choose a unification strategy:
   • Conservative — tight scope, minimal changes from original.
   • Balanced — pragmatic incorporation of most department input.
   • Aggressive — broad scope, maximizes departmental wishes.
3. Review the unified PRD carefully on the PRD page.
4. Make any final edits before moving to approvals.

Phase 7: Collect Approvals

1. Navigate to Approvals — the approver list is pre-configured by your organization's admin.
2. Notify approvers that the PRD is ready for review (outside SpecGraph — email or Slack).
3. Monitor approval status as decisions come in.
4. If an approver rejects the PRD, address their comment and ask them to re-review.
5. Once all required approvals are received, click Lock PRD.

Warning: Locking is permanent. Verify the PRD is correct before locking.

Phase 8: Generate Agents and Connect Claude Code

1. Navigate to Agents and click Generate Agents.
2. Review the generated workflow agents (Architect, Scrum Master, Developer, QA) and specialist agents.
3. Navigate to Export and follow the MCP setup instructions to connect Claude Code to this project.
4. Hand off the project directory setup to the development team.

Phase 9: Monitor Implementation

Once Claude Code is connected and the agent team is working:

1. Open the Implementation Dashboard to see story status in real time.
2. Watch for blockers — resolve them promptly so the Developer agent can continue.
3. Review implementation notes added by Claude Code for context on decisions made during development.
4. When all stories are complete, advance the project to Deployed and eventually Closed.

After Closing

When a project closes, run AI Knowledge Extraction to capture lessons learned in the organization's Knowledge Base. This turns your project's history into reusable insights for future initiatives.