Prepare a product-rule sheet before building a configurator.
Give dimensions, finishes, dependencies, and pricing a source your product and sales teams can review together.
Use stable product and option identifiers.
Define the vocabulary first
Start with a list of product names and identifiers that your team recognizes. Add the units used for dimensions and the terms used for finishes, roofs, panels, and accessories. Resolve inconsistent names before turning them into interface labels.
Each customer-facing choice should connect to a specific catalog item or rule. A display name can be friendly, but the underlying reference should remain stable when someone edits the description or translates the interface.
Record boundaries and dependencies
For dimensions, record what the value represents and how the range is defined. Is it an overall width, a projection, or a clear opening? Is the choice continuous or limited to set increments? Give the source of the rule and the person who can confirm it.
For accessories, record the conditions that make them available. Include dependencies on the product, dimensions, roof type, mounting arrangement, or another option. Explain the message a customer should see when a combination is unavailable.
Keep pricing assumptions alongside the choices
Document the base price, adjustments, quantities, included options, and excluded work. Explain how the pricing source relates to the product rules, and which items require a review. The digital experience should not invent a price merely because it can display one.
Add representative configurations with expected breakdowns. These become useful review cases for the product specialist and the salesperson. Include at least one boundary condition and one incompatible combination so the team checks more than the simplest path.
Assign an owner and a revision process
A launch-ready rule sheet needs a person responsible for changes. Record the current revision, approval status, and the source documents. Decide how a catalog update reaches the interface and how the updated experience is reviewed.
Begin with one representative product family. Once its information is consistent, the format can be reused for another range. A small, reviewed source is more useful than a large spreadsheet whose assumptions no one owns.
Worked example: documenting a side screen rule
A hypothetical pergola range offers side screens only on certain frame and roof combinations. The rule sheet should connect the availability to its source.
- Option identifier: SIDE_SCREEN, with a clear customer-facing name.
- Dependency: compatible frame, roof, and dimensions as confirmed by the manufacturer.
- Review case: one allowed combination and one unavailable combination, with the expected explanation.
Your review list.
- Use stable product and option identifiers.
- Record units and the meaning of each dimension.
- Document incompatible combinations and their explanations.
- Add sample configurations with expected price breakdowns.
- Assign an owner, revision, and approval process.
See the next step
in Sales Visualizer.
Explore an illustrative experience, then review your own range and requirements with your team.
Explore launch preparation