Product Owner Guide

How Product Owners can use Freshbase to turn meetings into specifications and manage requirements.

This guide shows how Product Owners can use Freshbase to turn meetings into specifications, manage requirements, and maintain decision traceability.

Your workflow in Freshbase

As a PO, your typical workflow in Freshbase follows this path:

Meeting takes place
    ↓
Transcription is captured (recording or import)
    ↓
AI extracts decisions, tasks, and requirements
    ↓
You review in the Inbox (approve, reject, refine)
    ↓
Approved items become documents in the Base
    ↓
You use Chat to refine and break down
    ↓
Specifications ready for the team

1. Capture knowledge from meetings

Meetings are the primary source of requirements and decisions. In Freshbase:

1. Record Google Meet meetings with the Chrome extension, or
2. Import transcriptions from tools like Granola, Fireflies, or Tactiq

After importing, the AI processes them automatically and sends extractions to the Inbox.

Register all frequent participants in the Team Roster (Settings > Team) so the AI correctly identifies who said what.

How to import meetings

Detailed guide

2. Review extractions in the Inbox

The Inbox is where you exercise quality control:

• Decisions — “We decided to use PostgreSQL for the reporting module”
• Tasks — “Maria will map the checkout flow by Wednesday”
• Acceptance criteria — “The dashboard must load in under 3 seconds”
• Follow-ups — “Confirm with the security team about the password policy”

For each item:

• Approve what is correct — it becomes permanent knowledge
• Reject noise or incorrect interpretations
• Defer what needs more context

Review the Inbox right after each meeting, while the context is still fresh in your memory.

How to review Inbox items

Detailed guide

3. Break down epics with Chat

Chat is your partner for turning big ideas into manageable parts:

Breaking epics into stories

“Break down the ‘Payment System’ epic into user stories. Consider the requirements already documented in the Base.”

Refining requirements

“Review these requirements and identify ambiguities or gaps: [paste requirements]“

Defining acceptance criteria

“Create acceptance criteria for the story ‘As a user, I want to filter reports by date‘“

Identifying dependencies

“What dependencies exist between the stories in the payments module?”

Use Pro mode in Chat for complex tasks like epic decomposition. The output is more detailed.

How to use Chat for planning

Detailed guide

4. Maintain traceability

One of Freshbase’s greatest strengths is complete traceability:

• Each document knows which conversation or meeting it originated from
• Decisions approved in the Inbox maintain a reference to the original transcription
• Chat conversation history is preserved

How to explore traceability

• In Chat, ask: “Where did the decision to use PostgreSQL come from?”
• In documents, check the frontmatter (freshbase:) to see the origin
• In the Inbox, each item shows its source

5. Integrate with task management

If your team uses Linear:

1. Set up the integration in Settings > Integrations > Linear
2. Ask the assistant: “Create an issue in Linear for the advanced search story”
3. Tasks extracted from meetings can be sent directly to Linear

This connects planning in Freshbase with execution in Linear.

How to set up integrations

Detailed guide

Suggested routine

When	What to do
After each meeting	Check that the transcription was imported, review Inbox
Daily	Review pending items in the Inbox
At the start of a sprint	Use Chat to break down and refine stories
Weekly	Review documentation, update Glossary if needed
Monthly	Verify that all important decisions are documented

Tips for Product Owners

• Glossary is your ally. Register domain terms so that transcriptions are more accurate.
• Document decisions early. Use Chat to record decisions as soon as they are made — don’t wait for the meeting minutes.
• Trust the process. The meeting > Inbox > document flow is powerful when used consistently.
• Constitution helps. If you have recurring business rules (e.g., “always prioritize accessibility”), put them in the Base’s Constitution.