The household task
Begin with what someone needs to see. A room can feel bright while a book remains in shadow.
Ambient lighting supports general movement; task lighting serves a particular activity. A bulb replacement is useful only if the resulting light suits that activity.
The first decision is therefore a sentence describing the task, place and difficulty. This avoids buying a powerful bulb to solve a problem caused by lamp position.
This course uses a fictional household called the Cedar household. Its observations, product cards and prices are synthetic, supplied for practice rather than presented as market evidence.
Try the supplied case
Cedar uses a living-room lamp for reading from 7 to 10 p.m. The page is shadowed, and the overhead light reflects on the television. The household has $20 for its first experiment.
Write one first goal for Cedar in the goal section of the starter plan.
One defensible response
Make evening reading at the living-room chair comfortable, without a distracting television reflection, within a $20 trial budget.
The goal names the real task and two constraints. Buying the brightest bulb would specify a product before identifying why the page is difficult to see.
Check your response: Include reading, the chair, television reflection and the budget; a promise to reduce the whole electricity bill is too broad.
Further reading: Natural Resources Canada: Home Lighting Design Guide Pocket Book.