There are different terms that describe the very first step in initiating an engineering project: Problem Statement, Design Statement, Design Brief, Statement of the Work, etc.
Their goal is to describe initial needs of a customer and to formulate the design problem.
Before the Statement of the Work appears on the scene, there is one document that triggers the entire engineering thinking process: Client, or Customer, Statement.
Customer Statement is the requirements and expectations of a product, where the needs can be feasible or unfeasible.