Benefit

To separate three things that get said as one. The product is what it is, the solution is what it does about a problem, and the benefit is what changes for the person afterwards. Most descriptions collapse all three into a feature list.

It is most useful when a team is close to the build and has lost the thread back to why. If the benefit column is thin while the product column is full, that is usually visible in the roadmap too.

Fill the product column fast, it is the easy one. Then for each row, ask what problem it solves and write that in the middle column. Rows with no answer are the interesting ones.

Then write the benefit as a change in somebody’s day rather than as an adjective. "Faster" is not a benefit; "they stop checking the spreadsheet on a Sunday" is. Finish by reading the benefit column on its own. If it does not describe a product worth paying for, the problem is upstream of the build.

All three columns end up saying the same thing in different fonts. Product: real time sync. Solution: syncs in real time. Benefit: real time syncing. The exercise has been completed and nothing has been learned.

The fix is to make each column change register. The solution column should name a problem that exists whether or not you build anything. The benefit column should be readable by somebody who has never heard of your product, and should describe their week rather than your feature. If a row cannot survive that, it is a row worth arguing about before it becomes a sprint.