Product Brief - Visual Guide to the NDIS Plan

Product Brief — Visual Guide to the NDIS Plan

Type: P3 Product Artefact — Stage 3 (Ingested)
Source: NbLM extraction pass (IFC notebook: 07344d6e-933e-43f0-81e2-8576ff93e178) + P3 Minimum Viable Products filter
Programme binding key: SD-IFC-2026-001
IFC Component: #1 (absorbs former Component #3 — Choice and Control Flexibility Educator, merged 2026-05-11)
Sentinel authority: Andrew (Product pillar)
Date: 2026-05-10 | Last updated: 2026-05-11
Score: 14/14 — Ingest (via P3 Product Brief Scoring Rubric)
Status: Active
Reference: P3 Minimum Viable Products, Strategy Dossier - IFC

Structural note (2026-05-11): Component #3 (Choice and Control Flexibility Educator) has been merged into this brief as Loop 4. The former standalone extract remains in Droppings/ as immutable history. All P3 references to Component #3 now point to this document.

Classification

  • Product type: Theory (primary) + Instrument — transfers foundational understanding of NDIS mechanics AND the decision-making capacity to actively direct Category 07 funding.
  • Blue Ocean / Red Ocean: Blue Ocean. No existing intake tool explains R106 Category 7 flexibility (SC/PRC dual-role), Digital Locks, and the participant's right to self-direct at this level of accessibility and specificity.

Six-Part Brief

1. Beneficiary Statement

Primary beneficiary: NDIS participants entering the agency who have flexible Support Category 07 funding but lack the technical knowledge to deploy it effectively.

Before the guide: participants were passively assigned a "Coordinator" and remained disempowered, often having funds consumed by indirect system navigation when they needed direct face-to-face coaching. The R106 flexibility that entitled them to choose was invisible to them.

After the guide: participants understand their legal rights and the architectural reality of their NDIS plan — what their budget is, what "locks" on it mean, and that Category 07 gives them the power to dial support up or down between indirect coordination (Outcome 8) and direct recovery coaching (Outcome 6) based on their actual episodic needs.

Ultimate beneficiary: NDIS participants — whose informed engagement with their own plan prevents budget waste and produces funding decisions that reflect their real situation.

2. Value Exchange Statement

Classification: Theory (primary) — paradigm transfer. Instrument (secondary) — decision-support tool at intake.

What transfers to the participant — two distinct capabilities:

  1. Foundational understanding: The participant receives the conceptual framework for their NDIS plan — what goals unlock which "bank accounts" (Support Categories), what "digital locks" (Stated item codes) mean and when planners apply them, what "mainstream" versus "NDIS-funded" supports means, and what "Everyday Living Expenses" are excluded.

  2. The R106 Master Key: The participant understands that if Category 07 is unlocked, they hold the power to choose between indirect system navigation (Support Coordination, Outcome 8) and direct trauma-informed relational coaching (Psychosocial Recovery Coaching, Outcome 6) — and to blend these in any proportion their plan allows.

Form of transfer: A highly accessible visual intake tool using a "Fibonacci Shell" pedagogical structure (Loops 0 to 4) — an expanding narrative of infographics styled like a clinical reference booklet. No jargon; accessible metaphors (Bank Accounts, Safes, Keys) throughout.

3. Core Hypothesis

If we replace the standard administrative intake process with an educational visual guide that explicitly explains the boundaries of NDIS funding, Digital Locks, and R106 Category 7 flexibility, then participants will exercise genuine informed consent and self-direct a hybrid support model that accurately reflects their real-world episodic barriers — preventing plan waste and producing funding decisions they genuinely endorse.

What will confirm this: Participants, after using the guide, can articulate the difference between an indirect coordination task and a direct coaching task in their own words, before signing the Service Agreement.

4. Probe Design

Minimum viable version: A visual intake tool covering four structural elements, deployed during the initial "meet and greet":

  1. The Origin Ecosystem (Loop 1): What the NDIS funds versus what Mainstream, Informal, and Everyday Living Expenses covers — the boundary of the system.

  2. The Funding Pool and Locks (Loops 2–3): How participant goals unlock specific Support Categories ("bank accounts"); the difference between flexible and Stated (locked) accounts; how planners use "digital safes" (Stated item codes) for high-cost items like Level 3 Specialist Coordination.

  3. The R106 Master Key and the Hybrid Choice (Loop 4 — absorbs Component #3): The culminating section of the guide. Covers four elements in sequence:

    • The Funding Pool: Category 07 is a flexible budget — the participant directs it (unless digitally locked by a Stated item code)
    • The Indirect Option (SC, Outcome 8): "Behind the scenes" — system navigation, provider connection, plan mechanics; the coordinator works on the participant's behalf
    • The Direct Option (PRC, Outcome 6): "Side by side" — relational, face-to-face, trauma-informed coaching; the coach works directly with the participant on psychological readiness and capacity-building
    • The Hybrid Choice: R106 is the participant's legal entitlement to blend these two supports in any proportion their plan allows — and to adjust that blend as their episodic needs fluctuate

    After Loop 4 the participant is ready to sign the Service Agreement with full informed consent — knowing what they are choosing and why.

Intentional scope constraint: Category 07 only. Generic NDIS plan mechanics (all 21 support categories) are out of scope for this probe.

5. Done Criteria

The probe is complete when ALL of the following are observable:

  • A participant completes the visual guide intake session
  • The participant can articulate — in their own words — the difference between an indirect coordination task (Outcome 8) and a direct coaching task (Outcome 6)
  • The participant makes a self-directed allocation choice (Coordination Only / Coaching Only / Blended) and signs the Service Agreement with that choice documented
  • No critical structural issue prevents comprehension (no blocker-severity accessibility defect)

Done vs. Valid: Done means the guided session completed. Valid requires evidence that the participant's self-directed allocation decision was maintained through the first support delivery — not merely made at intake.

6. Validity Marker

Design Element Governing Commitment
Explanation of Choice and Control as a legal entitlement Section 4 of the NDIS Act 2013 — participant's right to choice and control
Scope exclusion of Everyday Living Expenses Section 34(1)(e) and (f) — Reasonable and Necessary criteria
R106 flexibility as the participant's right, not the practitioner's option Registration Group R106 — Master Key flexibility doctrine
Accessible language and visual format Principle 4, NDIS Psychosocial Disability Recovery-Oriented Framework — "opportunities, information, support and resources to understand and communicate choices"

Gaps and Unknowns

ID Description Severity Disposition
G-01 Exact visual design (Fibonacci loops, infographic assets) not yet produced Medium Intentional — conceptual structure locked; visual production is delivery scope
G-02 Component #3 relationship — Resolved 2026-05-11 — Loop 4 of this brief IS Component #3. Former standalone extract archived in Droppings/ as immutable history

Brief produced: 2026-05-10 via NbLM extraction pass on IFC notebook (07344d6e-933e-43f0-81e2-8576ff93e178).
NbLM source confidence: All six fields well-supported — no fields flagged as insufficient.
Score: 14/14. Ingested directly.