Planning · Portfolio
Portfolio item
Move one portfolio item through its planning workflow, step by step, with Next drafting each document.
Every portfolio item has its own planning page. This is where the item’s owner generates drafts, edits and approves them, and moves the item from one step to the next until it is ready for delivery. Everyone else can follow progress here, read the documents and see why the item scores the way it does.
This page describes the frame that every step shares: the step rail, the score, the action bar and the header. Each step’s own content is described on its own page, listed under Related pages.
Before you start
- Open an item by selecting its name in Planning → Portfolio.
- If you cannot see the Portfolio, your organisation may not use it, or your role may not include it. See Understanding roles.
- Most actions on this page are for the item’s owner, and for administrators. Everyone else sees the page read-only. See If you are viewing read-only.
Understanding the page
| Area | Where it is | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Across the top | The breadcrumb, Applications, Activity, More actions, the initiative and the owner. |
| Score | Top of the left-hand rail | The item’s score out of 100. |
| Step rail | Left-hand side | Every step in the item’s planning workflow, and its status. |
| Action bar | Above the step’s content | Configure, the sources and versions of the draft, and the main action for the step. |
| Step content | The main area | The step you are viewing, such as the Overview or the PRD. |
On smaller screens the step rail is tucked away. Select the step name above the content (or, on a phone, the step name and score under the item’s title) to open it.
The step rail
The rail lists the steps of the item’s planning workflow, typically Overview, Requirements, PRD and Review. Your organisation’s workflow may add Work stream, Sub-workflow or Hand-back steps, or use several steps of one type, such as one PRD for the business and one for technology. Steps of the same type are grouped under a heading with a count of how many are done.
At the top of the rail are the workflow’s name and how many steps are done, for example 2 of 4 steps done.
Each step carries one icon that shows its status:
| Icon | Status | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Dashed circle | Ready | Not started yet. |
| Circle with a dot | Set up to continue or Review & approve | Waiting on the owner: either to finish the step’s settings, or to review the draft and approve it. |
| Spinner | Next is drafting… | Next is writing the draft now. |
| Half-filled circle | In review | The step is out with reviewers. |
| Circle with a cross | Generation failed | Next could not finish the draft. Try again from the action bar. |
| Filled tick | Complete | The step is approved. |
| Filled tick with a dot | Complete, with changes to reconcile | The step was approved, but review feedback has asked for changes that are not yet applied. |
A number at the end of a row shows how much the step produced, such as the number of requirements or PRD sections.
Select any step up to the current one to view it. Steps that cannot start yet are greyed out.
The score
The score at the top of the rail rates how strong the case for the item is, from 0 to 100. It is set when the item is created and refined as planning progresses. Under the number you see its band (for example Strong), the change since the last update and its cause.
Select the score for the detail:
- Scored with: the scoring model and its formula, for example RICE (Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort) or WSJF (Cost of Delay ÷ Job Size).
- A one-line headline of the assessment.
- Factors: each factor rated from 1 to 10, with Next’s reasoning.
- Risks & concerns: any risks Next found, with its verdict and reasoning.
- How the score evolved: the score after each step, with a small chart.
The score can also show:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| scoring… | Next is updating the score. |
| last scored and Edits not scored yet | The item has changed since it was last scored. The score updates on the next draft. |
| Not scored yet | The item has not been scored, for example straight after planning restarts. |
Adjust the score by hand
The owner can re-rate any factor.
- Select the score.
- Under Factors, drag a factor’s slider to the rating you want. The score updates when you let go, and the factor is marked Manual.
While any factor has been set by hand, automatic re-scoring is paused, and your ratings stay the same through later drafts. To hand scoring back to Next, select Recalculate scoring. This discards your manual ratings.
The action bar
The action bar holds what you need to move the current step forward. Its main button changes with the step and its status.
| Main button | When you see it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Generate draft | The step has not been drafted yet. | Next drafts the step using its generation settings. |
| Stop button | Next is drafting. | Stops the draft. A status beside it shows what Next is doing and for how long. Select the status to see each agent pack’s progress. |
| Try again | The draft failed. A message says Couldn’t draft the step. | Starts the draft again. |
| Approve step | A draft is ready for you to check. | Approves the step. A confirmation explains that approving locks the step and starts the next one. The step is read-only afterwards. |
| Regenerate | A draft is ready. | Has Next draft the step again. It becomes Regenerate to apply when you have changed the generation settings since the last draft. |
| Send for review or Continue to next step | On the PRD step. | Sends the PRD to reviewers, or moves on to the next PRD step. See PRD step. |
| Apply N changes | On the Review step, once you have decided on reviewers’ changes. | Applies your decisions. See Review step. |
| Promote to Intake Queue | On the Review step, once every section is approved. | Hands the item to delivery. See Parking, withdrawing and promoting. |
If the main button is greyed out, hover over it to see why, for example 2 sections have not been marked ready yet, Complete this step’s work stream first or 1 child item has not handed back yet.
The action bar also shows:
- Sources: a link icon with a count of the sources Next grounded the draft on.
- Gaps: things the agents could not find, so figures that depend on them are estimates. Add the missing material as files under Configure, then regenerate.
- Version history: when the step was last drafted or edited, and earlier versions you can compare or restore.
- More: on the PRD step, Export as PDF and Export as Word. On a phone, sources, gaps and version history move into this menu.
See Evidence, impact and history for sources and versions.
When the PRD is out for review, the action bar says Out for review, with how many reviewers you are still waiting on.
Steer what Next drafts
Before you generate, you can change what Next works from. Select Configure in the action bar to open Generation settings for the step you are viewing.
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Agent packs | Which teams of AI agents draft the step. The default pack is always included; tick others to add them. |
| Sections | PRD steps only. Which template sections to include, and which agent packs draft each one. Required sections are locked; others can be marked Not included. |
| Categorisation | Requirements steps only. Which model sorts the requirements into lanes, such as MoSCoW or the Kano Model. Your organisation’s default is marked Default. |
| Files | Which files Next reads as context. Tick or untick files, Attach files, or select Manage vault to see every file the item holds. |
| Instructions | Optional extra steering applied whenever Next drafts or regenerates this step, for example “Emphasise compliance and data-retention requirements.” |
A dot on Configure means the settings have changed since the last draft. Select Regenerate to apply to use them.
Files and the context vault
Every item has a context vault: the files Next can read when it drafts. Files are grouped by where they came from, such as the submission, an earlier step, a work stream, a parent item or a child item’s hand-back.
- Tick a file to include it in the context, or untick it to leave it out of this step’s drafts.
- Select the eye icon to read the text Next sees for that file. This is a viewer, not a download.
- From a file’s menu, choose Switch off for all agents to stop every step reading it. Switched-off files move to a Discarded list, where Restore brings them back.
- Choose Delete from the vault… to remove a file entirely. This cannot be undone.
You can attach up to 15 files, up to 25MB each: PDF, Office documents, text and images. A file may show Processing while Next reads it, or Unreadable if its text could not be extracted.
The header
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Applications | For items promoted from the Inbox: which applications each idea affects. See Evidence, impact and history. |
| Activity | The item’s full history: drafts, approvals, reviews and changes. See Evidence, impact and history. |
| More actions | Withdraw from review, park the item, resume it, restart planning, or mark it as not pursuing. See Parking, withdrawing and promoting. |
| Initiative | If your organisation uses initiatives, the initiative the item belongs to. The owner can choose one, or No initiative. See Initiatives. |
| Owner | The owner’s avatar. Hover for their name. |
Once an item has been approved for delivery, a Ready to promote chip appears in the header. Once it is in delivery, View track takes you to its delivery board.
Reassign the owner
If you are allowed to reassign the item, select the owner’s avatar.
- Select the owner’s avatar.
- Choose the new owner from the list.
- In the confirmation, select Reassign.
The new owner drives the item from its current step. Everything drafted so far is kept.
If you are viewing read-only
If you are not the owner, an eye icon appears beside the owner’s avatar. Hover over it to see why the page is read-only, for example:
- Read-only — Priya Shah is driving this: someone else owns the item.
- Read-only — in review: the PRD is out for review, so editing is locked.
- Read-only — you’re writing 2 sections on this item: you have been asked to write PRD sections. You can edit those sections and nothing else. See PRD step.
You can still read every step, open sources and versions, and see the activity history.
What happens next
Work through each step in turn. When the last step is complete and every PRD section is approved, promote the item to the Intake Queue. See Parking, withdrawing and promoting.
Good to know
- A child item that has been handed back or cancelled is read-only. The action bar says so. A cancelled child item can be reinstated from its parent’s Sub-workflow step.
- On the PRD step, if no PRD has been drafted yet, the page says No PRD yet. Generate it from the requirements.
- On the Requirements step, if you added requirements by hand before generating, Generate draft asks you to confirm, because generating replaces the requirements on the board and they cannot be restored.