Iteration Zero (0-to-1 doc)

• It's a product or engineering document that defines how to build something that doesn't exist yet — going from nothing (0) to a first working version (1).
• The name comes from Peter Thiel's concept of "0 to 1" (creating something new, vs. "1 to n" which is copying/scaling what already exists).
• It's different from a spec or RFC in that it's less about technical detail and more about justifying why something should be built and what the minimum viable version looks like.

What does it cover?

• Problem statement — what pain or opportunity exists
• Proposed solution — what you're building and why this approach
• Scope — what's in/out for the initial version
• Key decisions — major tradeoffs and why you made them
• Success criteria — how you'll know it worked
• Stakeholders & beneficiaries — who's involved and who benefits (cui bono?); make sure the right people participate, not just attend
• Win conditions — each stakeholder's top priorities ranked across schedule, scope, quality, budget, customer satisfaction, teamwork/learning, plus shared definitions of each
• Risks & open questions — known unknowns, assumptions, and dependencies
• Timeline / milestones — rough phasing and target dates

Why it matters

• Projects fail more often for people reasons than technical reasons — misaligned expectations, unclear ownership, absent stakeholders.
• The start of a project is the cheapest, highest-leverage moment to surface those mismatches, yet it's usually when the project gets the least attention.
• The exercises above aren't formalities — they exist to trigger the conversations that build shared understanding before crunch time.
• Win conditions and success criteria should be revisited as the project evolves; priorities shift.