# Personal Lifecycle Tracker --- MVP Scope Brainstorm **Status:** Working scope draft\ **Purpose:** Consolidate decisions made during brainstorming. This is not yet a final technical specification.\ **MVP lifecycle types:** Renewals, Maintenance, Warranties ## 1. Product Goal Build a Personal Lifecycle Tracker for multiple independent users and groups. It helps people track important lifecycle items, see upcoming and overdue actions, and receive reminders. The MVP is limited to three lifecycle types: 1. **Renewals** --- e.g., insurance, passport, licence, membership 2. **Maintenance** --- e.g., car, AC, appliance, home 3. **Warranties** --- e.g., electronics and appliances ## 2. Consolidated MVP Scope ### Accounts and users - Support multiple independent users. - Users sign up and log in using **email and password**. - Each user can create and belong to groups. - No Google sign-in is included in the chosen scope. ### Groups and shared access - Any user can create a group and invite members by email. - Group access model: **owner and members with shared access**. - All group members can create, edit, and complete shared lifecycle items. - Group membership and item permissions are otherwise intentionally simple. - Shared group items remain with the group when a member leaves or is removed. - No external sharing of individual items is supported. ### Lifecycle items - Only three lifecycle types are in scope: **Renewals, Maintenance, and Warranties**. - Use **common fields only**; no type-specific or user-customizable fields in the MVP. - The selected common fields are: - **Name** - **Lifecycle type** - **Due date** (optional) - **Status** - Dates are entered manually. - Missing due dates are allowed. - Items are created through a guided form where the user first selects a lifecycle type. - Items are organized into basic lists by lifecycle type. - No item assignment or responsible-person field. - No attachments or document uploads. - No external sharing. ### Status, completion, and deletion - Completed items are retained and remain visible in the main list alongside other items. - Overdue items remain overdue until manually completed. - No recurring schedules are included in the MVP, despite the earlier selection of manual date entry with recurring schedules. The later explicit decision was **no recurring schedules in MVP**. - Item deletion is permanent. - No activity history is included. - Account deletion removes everything associated with the account, including its group items. - Deleting a group deletes the group and all its shared items. ### Dashboard and navigation - The dashboard prioritizes **upcoming actions and overdue items**. - Basic lists are separated by lifecycle type. - No advanced search, filters, custom tags, folders, calendar, or analytics were selected for the MVP. ### Reminders and email - Support both in-app and email reminders. - Reminder schedule is fixed and identical for everyone. - Both reminder channels are always enabled; users cannot disable either channel. - No snooze functionality. - Email delivery uses a **daily scheduled digest**, rather than a separate email for each reminder event. - The digest contains **upcoming and overdue items**. - A single application time zone is used. - The digest delivery time is still pending (see Section 4). ### Excluded capabilities - No attachments or document vault - No data export - No activity history - No external item sharing - No recurring schedules in the MVP - No reminder snooze - No user-configurable reminder timing or notification preferences - No item assignment - No custom fields or type-specific fields - No CSV/PDF export ## 3. Decisions Made --- Question-by-Question Record ------------------------------------------------------------------------ \# Topic Selected decision ---------------------------- --------------------- --------------------- 1 Target audience Multiple people --- support independent users and groups 2 Ownership model Independent users and groups 3 Account access Email-based accounts using email and password 4 Group permissions Owner and members with shared access 5 Item data model Common fields only 6 Reminder channels In-app and email reminders 7 Date handling Manual date entry with recurring schedules was initially selected; later superseded by Question 27: no recurring schedules in MVP 8 Completion behavior Mark complete and retain history 9 Documents No attachments 10 Dashboard Upcoming actions and overdue items 11 Item creation Guided form with lifecycle type selection 12 Item organization Basic lists by lifecycle type 13 Group creation Users can create groups and invite members by email 14 Shared item All group members can permissions manage shared items 15 Reminder timing Fixed reminder schedule for everyone 16 Overdue behavior Keep overdue until manually completed 17 Item responsibility No assignment 18 Member departure Items remain with the group 19 Item deletion Permanent deletion 20 Activity history No activity history 21 Data export No export 22 Notification Both channels always preferences enabled 23 Account deletion Delete everything, including group items 24 External item sharing No external sharing 25 Common item fields Name, type, due date, status 26 Reminder snooze No snooze 27 Recurring schedules No recurring schedules in MVP 28 Completed item Keep completed items visibility in the main list 29 Missing dates Allow missing dates 30 Group deletion Delete group and all its shared items 31 Time zones Single application time zone 32 Email delivery Daily scheduled digest 33 Digest contents Upcoming and overdue items ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## 4. Pending Decision ### Question 34 --- Daily digest delivery time Choose the time for the daily email digest in the single application time zone: - [ ] **A. 6:00 AM** --- early morning - [ ] **B. 8:00 AM** --- morning planning - [ ] **C. 9:00 AM** --- start-of-workday summary - [ ] **D. 12:00 PM** --- midday check-in No option has been selected yet. ## 5. Important Clarifications for the Next Pass These are unresolved specification details, not additional decisions: 1. **Fixed reminder schedule:** The exact lead times before a due date have not been selected. Do not assume intervals such as 30, 7, or 1 day without confirming them. 2. **In-app reminder behavior:** The channel is selected, but the exact UI location and whether reminders are persistent notifications or dashboard indicators are not defined. 3. **Status values:** The common `Status` field is selected, but the complete list of statuses and transition rules has not been defined. At minimum, the conversation establishes active/upcoming, overdue, and completed concepts; final status labels should be confirmed. 4. **Missing due dates:** Items without dates are allowed. They cannot be classified as upcoming or overdue until a due date exists. 5. **Completed items and "history":** Completed records should remain visible, but a separate activity/change log is excluded. 6. **Account deletion and group ownership:** The selected rule says account deletion deletes everything, including group items. The handling of groups with other members when their owner deletes their account may need an explicit implementation rule; do not silently preserve or transfer the group. 7. **Group deletion permissions:** The deletion consequence is selected, but whether only the group owner can delete a group has not been explicitly decided. 8. **Group invitations:** Invitations are sent by email, but acceptance, expiry, cancellation, duplicate invitations, and behavior for unregistered invitees remain unspecified. 9. **Due-date semantics:** The application time zone is global, but date-only versus date-and-time input and the exact boundary for becoming overdue need to be defined. 10. **Renewals and maintenance completion:** Items are retained when completed. Since recurring schedules are excluded, the MVP should not automatically create a next-cycle item. ## 6. MVP Acceptance Outline The MVP should allow a user to: - Register and log in with email and password. - Create a group and invite members by email. - Create renewal, maintenance, and warranty items using a guided form. - Save items with name, type, optional due date, and status. - View items in lists separated by lifecycle type. - See upcoming actions and overdue items on the dashboard. - Mark an item complete while retaining it in the main list. - Receive in-app reminders and a daily email digest containing upcoming and overdue items, using the fixed schedule and application time zone once configured. - Permanently delete items, groups, and accounts according to the selected deletion rules. ## 7. Scope Principle Keep the first version deliberately small: lifecycle records, simple groups, a focused action dashboard, and fixed reminders. Do not add excluded capabilities unless the scope is explicitly revised.