A template for a PRD - Product Requirements Document / Product Note
The real reason a Product Manager should write a PRD is to clarify their own thinking about the product / feature and how it adds value to the customer. Of course, it will also be used to communicate with other stakeholders on what is being built. Below is a comprehensive template on what an ideal Product Requirements document should address.
“Don't use this template verbatim for every use case. Think through all of the sections and use the one that makes sense for your situation. But do think deeply about all of them.”
The PRD Template:
[Feature / Product Name]
Who to reach out to for any questions: [ Product Manager’s name]
Last updated: [ DDMMYY]
What is it?
What needs to be built / changed?
Why build this feature / product
What problem is this solving? How do we know this is a real problem and worth solving? Why does this matter to our customers and business? What evidence or insights do you have to support this?
Alignment
How does this initiative tie to broader product team, business team or company goals and strategies?
Research, Key Insights, and Inspiration
What key insights (quant or qual) and inspiration (including competitive research) were considered? Please add any relative links or dashboard
Solution
Features / Flow / Logic etc.
Include mocks, wireframes or completed designs
What operations might be required on an ongoing basis? Which team owns it? What is the process?
Analytics and Experimentation Plan
Which metrics will need to be measured? Has the reporting been set up? Has the discussion been completed with the Analytics team for the same? Is there a A/B test or other experimentation plan? Please provide details
Out of Scope for now
Are there any related problems that we want to explicitly ignore for now? Are there some use cases / users whose issues will not be solved? List explicit areas we do not plan to address - explain why addressing those areas are not the goal at the moment ( low impact / tech feasibility / time it will take etc. )
Edge Case Scenarios
All unhappy case scenarios like failures, reversals, escalations etc
Who will be impacted?
Customers, Partners, Customer Support team etc. What CX issues remain / could be added due to this feature
Success Criteria
We believe [capability], will lead to [outcome], which will result in [metric change] by [date]. Include guesses for the size of the win. Include quant and qual metrics as appropriate.
Metric | Baseline (Date) | Target (Date) | Latest (Updated On) |
| | | |
Roll out Plan
When does it ship and what are the milestones?
Long term goal
What is the vision beyond v1? Will there be further iterations and what will they look like? What are success/failure metrics of these iterations
Open Questions
List any open questions