How to write PRDs and product requirements

Introduction

Product Requirement Document (PRD) is an essential tool for product managers. It aligns teams and stakeholders with a product or feature’s vision, goals, and specifications. Serving as the single source of truth, it provides a comprehensive overview of the purpose, features, functionality, and release criteria. A thorough PRD guarantees clarity and alignment throughout the development process. It acts as a roadmap, guiding the team, prioritizing objectives, and delivering a product that effectively meets user needs and business goals. Without a clear PRD, teams risk misalignment, wasted efforts, and a product that fails to satisfy user requirements or achieve business objectives.

Key Components of the PRD

1. Product Purpose and Goals:

   • Define the purpose and goals of your product.
   • Identify the user problems it solves and the target customer.
   • Align high-level objectives with company strategy.
   • Create a compelling narrative that sets the vision.

   HINT: Start with the “Why” to clearly articulate the rationale for the product. Use data and research to support your claims and ensure alignment with company strategy.

2. Target Users and Use Cases:

   • Develop detailed user personas, including goals, motivations, pain points, and tasks.
   • Prioritize the most important users and use cases.
   • Use storytelling to bring user personas to life and ensure your team understands their needs.

   HINT: Use empathy maps to understand emotional and psychological needs, and prioritize use cases that deliver the most value. Work with UX/UI designers and talk with users

3. Feature Requirements and Functionality:

   • Define the core features and functionalities that align with your product’s purpose and target users.
   • Focus on the “what” and not the “how.”
   • Break down features into specific, measurable, and actionable requirements.
   • Prioritize based on impact and feasibility.

   HINT: Focus on MVP features first. Use user stories to capture the user perspective and apply prioritization frameworks like MoSCoW.

4. Non-functional Requirements:

   • Address performance, security, scalability, and usability.
   • Define metrics and thresholds for each non-functional requirement.
   • Specify response times, error rates, or accessibility guidelines.

   HINT: Collaborate early with technical teams to ensure requirements are realistic. Keep them simple and iterate with engineers as needed.

5. Release Criteria:

   • Define specific milestones, quality metrics, and user acceptance criteria for each release.
   • Consider factors like bug severity, test coverage, and stakeholder sign-off.

   HINT: Establish clear, quantifiable metrics for release criteria. Use checklists and engage stakeholders regularly to manage expectations.

Writing Effective Product Requirements

Writing clear, concise, and actionable product requirements is essential for successful development. Well-written requirements ensure the team understands exactly what needs to be built, reducing ambiguity and minimizing misinterpretation. Follow these key tips:

1. Be Specific and Measurable:

   • Use precise language and quantifiable metrics.
   • Example: “System response time under 2 seconds for 95% of requests” vs. “System should be fast.”

2. Focus on the User:

   • Frame requirements from the end-user’s perspective.
   • Describe what the user needs and why, not how to implement it.

3. Prioritize Requirements:

   • Use a prioritization framework (e.g., MoSCoW method).
   • Classify as Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, or Won’t-have.
   • Focus on delivering critical functionality first.

4. Leverage User Stories:

   • Capture requirements from the user’s perspective.
   • Keep it simple: “As a [user], I want [goal], so that [reason].”
   • Focus on user needs and provide context.

5. Avoid Technical Jargon:

   • Write in plain language understandable by all stakeholders.
   • Avoid unfamiliar technical terms or acronyms.

6. Validate Requirements:

   • Review with stakeholders to ensure alignment with user needs and business goals.
   • Refine and clarify through collaborative discussions before development.

Following these guidelines, teams can create requirements that effectively communicate desired functionality, user needs, and business objectives, setting the stage for successful product development.

Decomposing PRD into Feature Requirements Documentation (FRD)

Experience has shown that breaking down a PRD into smaller, more focused Feature Requirement Documents (FRDs) is an effective approach, particularly when working with larger product teams or complex product suites. This allows Product Leadership (Chief Product Officer (CPO), Head of Product (HoP)) to delegate specific features to individual PMs/POs, enabling them to work independently and efficiently.

1. Delegating Responsibility:

   • Decomposing the PRD into FRDs enables the CPO or HoP to allocate ownership of specific features to individual PMs or POs.
   • This distribution of responsibility empowers each PM/PO to thoroughly understand and effectively execute their assigned features, ensuring a deep level of expertise and focus.

2. Focused Collaboration:

   • FRDs provide a focused context for collaboration within smaller teams.
   • PMs/POs can work closely with their respective teams to refine requirements, discuss implementation details, and make informed decisions.
   • This focused collaboration leads to better feature design and alignment within the team.

3. Parallel Development:

   • By splitting the PRD into FRDs, multiple features can be developed concurrently by different teams.
   • This parallel development approach accelerates the overall product development process, as teams can work independently on their assigned features without being bottlenecked by dependencies on other teams.

4. Flexibility and Adaptability:

   • FRDs allow for greater flexibility and adaptability in the product development process.
   • If priorities change or new insights emerge, individual FRDs can be updated or reprioritized without impacting the entire PRD.
   • This flexibility enables product teams to be more responsive to market demands and customer feedback.

The Living Documentation that Nurtures PRDs through Continuous Iteration

A living PRD is a dynamic document that evolves throughout the product development lifecycle, reflecting the most current information, changes, and requirements. Unlike static documents that remain unchanged, living PRDs adapt to new insights, user feedback, and market conditions. Benefits of living PRDs include:

• Transparency and alignment among stakeholders.
• Comprehensive and accurate view of the product’s evolution.
• Effective management of complex products with interconnected features and dependencies.
• Facilitation of collaboration in large and geographically dispersed teams.
• Compliance with regulatory requirements in industries such as healthcare or finance.

Implementing a living PRD requires:

• Significant time and effort investment.
• Regular reviews, updates, and communication of changes.
• Robust version control mechanisms for tracking changes and retaining snapshots.
• Active participation and contribution from all relevant stakeholders.

Key differences between living PRDs and static documents:

• Adaptability: Living PRDs accommodate change and reflect the current state of the product, while static documents provide a snapshot at a specific point in time.
• Collaboration: Living PRDs encourage active participation and contribution from all stakeholders, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability.

Embracing dynamic documentation through living PRDs offers benefits in transparency, alignment, and adaptability. While maintaining a living PRD requires dedication and effort, it enables product teams to navigate complexities with greater agility and clarity, ultimately delivering products that meet the ever-changing needs of users.

The Future of PRDs: AI-Assisted Documentation

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, it has the potential to revolutionize the way we create and maintain PRDs. AI-powered tools could assist in:

1. Requirement Elicitation:

   • AI agents could analyze user feedback, market trends, and competitor data to suggest new requirements or improvements to existing ones.

2. Consistency and Completeness Checks:

   • AI algorithms could scan the PRD for inconsistencies, ambiguities, or missing information, and provide suggestions for improvement.

3. Automated Updates:

   • AI could monitor changes in linked artifacts (e.g., user stories, design mockups) and automatically update the relevant sections of the PRD.

4. Intelligent Search and Navigation:

   • AI-powered search and navigation features could make it easier to find specific information within the PRD and explore related requirements.

While AI-assisted documentation is still in its early stages, it holds promise for making the PRD creation and maintenance process more efficient and less resource-intensive in the future.

Conclusion

Crafting effective PRDs is essential for successful product development. By including key components, decomposing PRDs into FRDs when appropriate, leveraging living PRDs, establishing traceability and collaboration, and following best practices, product managers can create PRDs that align teams, communicate vision, and guide development efforts. Remember, a PRD should evolve and adapt as the product grows and new insights emerge. Regular reviews and updates are necessary to keep the PRD relevant and aligned with the changing needs of users and the business. Effective PRDs foster collaboration, clarity, and focus, empowering teams to work together towards a common goal and making the product development process more efficient and effective. By investing time and effort into creating high-quality PRDs, product managers can set their teams up for success and deliver products that truly meet user needs and drive business value.

References

1. Product Requirements Document: What It Is and How to Write One
2. How to Write a Great Product Requirements Document
3. AI for Product Management: Use Cases, Applications, and Benefits
4. The Only Product Requirements Document (PRD) Template You Need