Dover Run Club Website Product Brief

Purpose

Provide a simple, welcoming web presence for Dover Run Club that answers the essentials quickly: what the club is, when it meets, where to show up, and what the vibe is.

Product Goals

Make first-time visitors confident enough to join a Tuesday run.
Keep maintenance low with a lightweight, Markdown-first Jekyll approach.
Preserve GitHub Pages compatibility and lightweight Jekyll delivery.
Create a clear foundation for future expansion without exposing unfinished content.

Target Users

Newcomers — local runners, drop-ins, and friends/family checking the club out. Need What/When/Where/Vibe and first-run reassurance.
Weekly runners — regulars looking up tonight’s route on their phone.
Run admins — volunteers who post the weekly route to the Facebook group and Strava. Need a quick, shareable link to any route.
Supporters and partners — local businesses that have donated (The Brick, Middleton Chiropractic, and others), future sponsors, civic groups, race organizers, and donors if the club becomes a nonprofit. Need recognition, legitimacy, and a clear way to get in touch.

Current Scope (Phase 2)

Multi-page site with a newcomer-first homepage and a main navigation: Home, Routes, Our Story, Gallery, Supporters.
Homepage communicates, each fact stated once:
- What: Dover Run Club (casual, social group)
- When: Tuesdays at 6:00 PM
- Where: The Brick, Dover, NH
- Vibe: All paces welcome; social post-run hang mentioned briefly, once
Dedicated Routes page (common routes primary, member routes secondary) with shareable per-route links.
Supporters page recognizing local business support, linked from nav and footer.
Events, Pub Runs, and Membership pages remain in-repo but unlinked (published: false) until there’s real content.

Non-goals

No activation of events, pub runs, or membership pages until there is real content.
No formal membership system, dues workflow, or account features.
No heavy framework adoption or redesign away from current custom CSS + Jekyll setup.
No publishing placeholder content as primary user paths.

Tone

Casual, welcoming, and inclusive. Clear language, low friction, and a running-first, community-first voice. The post-run hang at The Brick is optional: mention it briefly, never lead with it.

Success Criteria

Visitors can identify What/When/Where/Vibe within seconds on first load.
Main navigation stays focused on the active phase’s pages; unfinished pages stay hidden.
Run admins can grab a link to any route in one tap.
Content updates remain simple for maintainers (Markdown + lightweight templates).
Site builds and deploys cleanly via GitHub Pages-compatible configuration.

Agent Guardrails

Keep changes focused and minimal; avoid unrelated refactors.
Preserve GitHub Pages/Jekyll compatibility.
Use existing design tokens/variables and current styling approach.
Keep hidden future pages unlinked from main navigation until explicitly promoted.
When structure/scope changes, update roadmap documentation in lockstep.

Roadmap Linkage

Phase progression and activation criteria for future pages are tracked in design/website-roadmap.md. This PRODUCT.md defines Phase 2 intent; roadmap entries define when and how scope expands.