Product Requirements Document (PRD) in agile (Template included)

Product Requirements Document (PRD) stands as a beacon in the intricate world of product development. It’s not just a document; it’s a narrative that tells the story of the product’s journey from conception to realization. Much like a screenplay to a film director, the product requirements document provides direction, ensuring that every team member, from designers to developers, understands the product’s vision and purpose. A well-crafted PRD is the cornerstone of successful product development process, ensuring clarity, alignment, and a shared understanding.

Although, most of the companies are adapting agile product development process which is based on time boxed sprints where developers work based on the epics and user stories. PRDs are not particularly an artifiact generated in agile, but the old long PRDs can still act as a guiding framework to create epics and guide the development team.

In this post, I will demonstrate how to utilize the PRD in agile framework to create meaningful epics linked to the actionable user stories.

A PRD is the heart and soul of a product. It’s a comprehensive document that captures the essence of what the product aims to achieve, its features, the target audience, and the technical specifications. Imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint. You might end up with walls where windows should be or a bathroom without plumbing. Similarly, without a PRD, product development can become directionless, leading to wasted resources, misaligned teams, and a product that misses the mark.

In product management, product managers write a product requirements document detailing the functional requirements, user experience, scope and other supporting information crucial to develop a new product or enhance an existing product. A PRD ensures that everyone involved has a clear, concise, and shared understanding of the product’s goals and requirements. The goal is to communicate what needs to be built, for whom and how it will be delivered to the end users.

Good product managers not only focus on releasing new features or a new product but also think about what needs to be measured post product release and capture the success metrics. The ideal spot to define the success metrics is the PRD so that it can be considered as a source of truth after release for analytics teams to create necessary reports indicating the level of success of the feature.

Let us first understand the foundations of writing a good Product Requirements Document.

The Foundations of a Good PRD:

• Clear Objectives: Every successful journey begins with a destination in mind. In the realm of product development, clear objectives set the direction. It’s the difference between Amazon’s focused approach to becoming the world’s most customer-centric company and companies that spread themselves too thin, trying to be everything to everyone. While writing a PRD, it is crucial to clearly convey the business objectives to be achieved through a feature.
• User-Centric Approach: The annals of business history are littered with products that failed because they didn’t resonate with users. Remember Google Glass? It was technologically advanced, but it didn’t address a clear user need, leading to its downfall. A PRD must always prioritize the user, ensuring that every feature and functionality serves a genuine user need. With user-centric approach, product managers must focus on including user scenarios describing high level feature requirements in the PRD.
• Collaborative Input: A product is like a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece representing input from different teams. Miss one piece, and the picture is incomplete. Collaborative input ensures a holistic view, capturing potential challenges and opportunities from every angle. For instance, while a designer might focus on aesthetics, a developer might highlight technical constraints. Constraints, assumptions, challenges must be captured in PRD. PRD is a living document that needs to be updated as needed to ensure product development team has the latest information to move in right direction.

Steps to Craft an Effective Product Requirements Document

Now we have a high level understanding of what is a PRD, let us look at steps in creating a PRD.

• Research and Data Collection: The world’s most successful products, from the iPhone to Spotify, are rooted in deep research. Before penning down the PRD, it’s crucial to understand the market landscape, competitor offerings, and most importantly, the user. Surveys, focus groups, and stakeholder interviews can provide invaluable insights on the feature or particular product that needs to be built.
• Drafting the PRD: With research in hand, the drafting begins. This phase is about translating insights into actionable requirements. It’s a dynamic process, with iterations and refinements. It begins with product discovery phase, where the high level features and requirements are identified. Requirements gathering process involves brainstorming ideas together and defining the set of requirements that would feed into the user interface requirements.
• Iterative Review: A PRD is not a one-person show. It requires collaboration. Reviews with cross-functional teams can unearth potential challenges, from technical bottlenecks to design constraints. It is important to maintain versions of the document after updating it with feedback from review sessions.
• Finalization: With feedback incorporated, the PRD is finalized. It becomes the reference document, the single source of truth for all teams involved. It is product manager’s best friend as it can be referred back for any crucial moments where team might feel lost and needs a direction.

Key Components to Include in a PRD 

Usually PRDs are created in waterfall projects, but in today’s world most of the companies are adapting agile methodology to develop products. We can still use the PRD as a guideline to capture agile requirements.

In my experience, most of product owners or product managers do not write a detailed epic like a PRD but straight away jump into writing user stories. This may lead to gaps in capturing requirements. Some product managers maintain a separate word document for PRD and then use it as a reference to create epics or user stories. It is crucial to maintain PRD as a living document that can be shared with everyone and accessible to everyone. Hence the ideal place to capture the product requirements is on Jira ( or similar tool) where the user stories are captured.

Let us now dive into the key components that a good PRD should contain. This can act equivalent to an epic with corresponding linked stories. Instead of not providing any information in the epic, the following components can be captured in the epic.

• Executive Summary: This is the snapshot, the elevator pitch. In a few sentences, it captures the product’s essence or purpose of the product. For instance, Uber’s might read: “A peer-to-peer service for people to request rides via a smartphone app.”
• Problem statement: A good PRD should include the problem statement that needs to be solved.
• Business Goal: Every feature being identified needs to be aligned with the business goals of the organization and align with the overall product strategy. A comprehensive PRD includes the business goal to be achieved through the feature and help designers and engineers to build the product in right direction.
  
• Target Audience: Understanding the user is paramount. Detailed user personas, from demographics to psychographics, can guide product features. For instance, a fitness app targeting millennials might prioritize social sharing features, while one targeting seniors might focus on accessibility. While writing requirements, it is important to clearly indicate the category of end users.
• Features and Functionalities: This section is the heart of the PRD. It lists every feature in detail, ensuring that developers have a clear roadmap. For instance, a messaging app’s features might include text messaging, voice notes, and file sharing.
• User Stories and Scenarios: This brings the user into the PRD. By visualizing how users will interact with the product, teams can ensure that the product addresses genuine user needs. For instance, “A user wants to share a file with a friend during a chat.” All the high level use cases must be described in the document. This will act as a guidance for product owners to create necessary user stories with further details which can be then groomed with the engineering team.
• Technical Specifications: This is the nuts and bolts. It delves into the technicalities, from platforms (iOS, Android) to integrations (APIs, third-party services). Some teams maintain a separate technical requirement document to define the technical needs to implement the functional requirements. I
• Dependencies: No product is an island. Whether it’s a weather app relying on a third-party weather API or an e-commerce platform integrating with payment gateways, dependencies must be clearly listed.
• Scope: Setting a clear boundary on what would be delivered as a part of an epic/PRD helps the team to stay focused on implementing the prioritized work within the set timeline.
  
• Acceptance Criteria: How do you define success? Whether it’s a feature that performs flawlessly or a product that meets all its objectives, acceptance criteria set the benchmark.
• Success metrics: While the features are identified and defined with in the PRD, it is also crucial to define the success metrics for the feature and measure it post launch.
• Open Questions: Defining the product needs takes iterative discussions and open questions should be captured in the document as it is not possible to get answers to everything initially. Over few discussions and brainstorming sessions, the outstanding questions will eventually get answered should be captured in the PRD.

Best Practices for a Stellar Product Requirements Document (PRD): 

• Use Clear Language: Clarity is king. The PRD should be easily understandable, free from jargon, and concise. It ensures that both the tech-savvy developer and the marketing executive are on the same page.
• Stay Concise: While details are crucial, brevity ensures that the core message isn’t lost. It’s about striking the right balance, providing enough detail without overwhelming.
• Incorporate Visuals: Humans are visual creatures. Flowcharts, wireframes, and mockups can often convey information more effectively than words, ensuring that teams have a clear visual reference.
• Regular Updates: A PRD isn’t set in stone. As the product development journey unfolds, new insights might emerge, requiring product managers to update the PRD. Share the PRD with the key stakeholders to ensure they are aware of any updates.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them 

• Over-complication can lead to paralysis. A product that tries to do too much can end up doing little. The PRD should focus on core features and functionalities, ensuring that the product remains focused and user-centric.
• Ignoring feedback is a recipe for disaster. Feedback, whether from users or team members, is gold. It provides a fresh perspective, highlighting potential challenges and opportunities.
• A static PRD in a dynamic world is like navigating a storm with an outdated map. Regular updates ensure that the PRD remains relevant, reflecting the latest market trends, user preferences, and technological advancements.

Conclusion
 In the grand tapestry of product development, the PRD stands as a testament to the product’s vision, purpose, and promise. It’s more than just a document; it’s a narrative, a story that captures the product’s essence. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the importance of a robust, dynamic, and user-centric PRD only grows. It’s not just about creating a product; it’s about creating a product that resonates, delights, and delivers. And at the heart of this journey is the PRD.

Additional Resources
The journey to mastering the art of crafting a PRD is ongoing. For those keen on delving deeper, there’s a wealth of resources available. From PRD templates that provide a structured framework to case studies that offer a glimpse into successful PRDs, the learning never stops. A free template is available here to get started on a PRD.