Write your first PRD(Product Requirement Document)

What is a PRD anyway?

PRD (Product/Project Requirement Document) is a document that

• highlights the roadmap on how you will build the product.

• helps you decide its features, target audience, success metrics, etc.

• helps your whole team stay on the same page.

• specifies technical and functional requirements.

• guides decision-making and evaluates post-launch success.

Now that we understand PRD’s importance. Let’s dive into its components real quick.🏃🏻‍♀️

Objective: Goal of product.

The objective is the goal of our product. 🎯Focuses more on the “why” and “how”.

For example, the objective of this blog is to ensure everyone understands the importance of a PRD, but my sole purpose is to help you write your first PRD with ease.✍🏻So,

Try answering these questions while writing the objective.

1. Why are we building this product?

   • What problem are we solving, and what are our expectations with this product?

   • What research shows the problem actually exists?

2. What are the requirements of this product?

   • What key features are mandatory to solve this problem?

   • What technical and design aims are to be met?

Purpose Statement: Broader picture, the effect of the product on users.

Just like in life, we need a purpose to understand the bigger picture of life. Your product also must have a purpose statement to guide its development and success.

So try answering these questions while writing the purpose.

1. What problem does the product solve?

   • Is the problem being solved a real problem and worth solving?😕

   • What will my user benefit from this? Is there a long-term impact?

2. Who is my target audience and how will my product affect them?

3. Is my product valuable to users and does it make a positive impact on their everyday life?

Scope: Defines what is included and what is not in the product.

Suppose I want to make a laptop, I want it to have the best processor, graphics, etc, but I can’t ask my laptop to have the ability to fly to the moon. Sounds absurd right? 👀

Thus we need to set clear rules on what is acceptable and what is not.

So before writing the scope you need to answer two basic questions:

1. What is in scope?

   • what features are included in my product? What problems will it solve?

   • What’s the focus in terms of technical, design requirements?

2. What is definitely not in scope?

   • What features are not included ? What are their limitations or constraints?

   • What to avoid to keep us focused?

Features and Requirements (Specify necessary features for success)

It defines what the product will do and how will it perform. Specifying features and requirements is a must so that we can focus on solving the real problem in hand.

Failing to meet this, we may waste resources, or fail to meet users’ needs.

Features - They define what the product should do for its users

Requirements - They define what’s needed for the successful completion of the product.

We divide our features into P1 and P2 categories.

These categories help us to prioritize our work as time and resources are limited.

1. P1 ( Top Priority / Must haves)

   For a juice shop (an order menu, rate card, custom size glasses, etc)🥤

2. P2( Least Priority or good to have )

   For the same (Biodegradable cups, exotic fruit options, etc)

User Stories and Use Case: Captures user needs and steps to address those needs.

User stories: They help us understand specific user needs and how to fulfill them using our product.

Use-case : It provides us a more detailed overview how our product will be used by our customer in real life.

Technical requirements: Tech specs are needed for the smooth functioning of the product.

Technical requirements help us identify the tools and technologies necessary to build the product. We decide our technical requirements based on our user stories and requirements. This user that we meet our user’s expectations without denting our business goals.

Suppose we are making a website for a juice shop. We just need a simple website to order stuff that needs a :

1. What language to choose(Eg , HTML, rust etc)

2. Do we have developers who code in the existing language, if not hire developers.

3. How will we manage orders and users? (e.g., Node.js)

4. Where will we store product and order info? (e.g., MySQL)

5. Where will we host the website? (e.g., AWS) etc

Design requirements: Defines visual and user experience aspects of the product.

This is very important because we say,

we eat with our eyes first ~ random quote

This means if something is visually attractive, it’s bound to be more successful. Thus we need to specify our logo, color scheme, font size, font theme, and feel of our website(cartoonish, ancient, etc)

Thus we need to keep this in mind while designing our product.

1. The product should be visually aesthetic. (vibrant color to show fun, green for freshness, black for power, etc.

2. Is this product mobile responsive?

Success Metrics: Defines how success looks like for our product.

For each one of us, the definition of success is different right, The same for your product. You need to specify what success looks like for your product.

So try to answering these questions while defining the success metrics.

1. Number of users affected?

2. How much revenue is generated?

Timeline: Sets clear deadlines and milestones.⏰

Time is precious and so are resources, we must use it wisely. Setting a timeline helps us use our resources efficiently and achieve goals.

Thus we need to keep this in mind while setting our timeline.⏰

1. What time is this product supposed to take?

2. How much time is to be allotted to each phase (planning, design, testing, etc)?

3. Are there any deadlines or milestones that need to be covered?

Let’s quickly summarize our learnings. A PRD is a skeleton for our product. It helps us be focused and keep everyone on the same page. It also prevents you from hallucinating on random features.

I’m so glad you made it this far. So don’t waste time and write your first PRD and take a step ahead to building your dream product.

Feel free to drop your comments below. Happy learning!😀