“Why aren’t they following the spec?!” If you’ve ever found yourself asking this, you might have a single source of truth problem. In this lesson, I’ll share how fragmented requirements caused confusion in my past projects—and how you can prevent it from happening to you.
In Lesson 1, we covered the importance of writing things down. Now, we’ll take the next step: ensuring that everyone finds the right information in one place.
Prefer watching instead of reading? Watch the full lesson here:
Having specs written down isn’t enough—they need to be in one place. If different people are referencing different versions in emails, Slack, or attachments, you’ll end up with misalignment, confusion, and costly mistakes.
Here’s why a single source of truth (SSOT) is critical:
1️⃣ Ensures everyone is working from the same information.
2️⃣ Prevents overlooked updates and lost requirements.
3️⃣ Eliminates conflicting interpretations of specs.
4️⃣ Improves efficiency by reducing back-and-forth clarifications.
🚨 Biggest lesson: If your team references specs in multiple places, someone will be out of sync.
💡 Pro Tip: Store all product specs in a single, shared document or tool that is easily accessible and up-to-date.
When I was first managing product specs, I made a critical mistake. I was writing my specs in PowerPoint and sharing them via email attachments.
Here’s what went wrong:
❌ Mistakes I Made:
🚨 The Cost of No SSOT:
🔥 Lesson Learned: Without a single place for specs, information gets lost, misinterpreted, or ignored.
Want to ensure your specs are always clear and accessible? Follow this simple action plan:
1️⃣ Pick a single tool for specs (e.g., Confluence, Notion, SwipeSpec, or a shared Google Doc).
2️⃣ Make it the official source of truth—don’t store specs in multiple places.
3️⃣ Enforce the habit—make sure everyone on your team only refers to the SSOT when discussing requirements.
📌 Bonus Challenge: Review your current process and identify where specs are scattered. Consolidate everything into one single place today!
📌 Key takeaway: After writing things down, the next most important step is keeping them in one place. If specs are scattered, your team will be misaligned.
🎯 Next Lesson: Now that you know how to maintain a single source of truth, let’s dive into another major challenge, keeping naming consistent across specs. Watch Lesson 3 →