{"id":79607,"date":"2023-01-10T16:52:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T16:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?page_id=79607"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:18:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:18:02","slug":"product-requirements-document","status":"publish","type":"pp_glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/glossary\/product-requirements-document\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Requirements Document"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

What is a Product Requirements Document (PRD)?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A product requirements document (PRD) is usually written by a product manager and explains the purpose, requirements, specifications, and release of a product or feature you want to build.<\/strong> The document will serve as a guide for your team and stakeholders who will help to build, launch, and market the product. It can also be used to help inform supporting documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PRD serves as a blueprint for the product development process and helps ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page regarding the product’s features and requirements. The PRD also helps to ensure that the product meets customer needs and expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Free<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A well-crafted PRD should include a detailed description of the product, its purpose, target audience, key features, user interface design, technical specifications, and other relevant information. Additionally, it can include a timeline for development and launch and any potential risks or challenges associated with the product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A PRD is an artifact of waterfall methodology and is becoming less and less popular with product managers, especially those who work with agile frameworks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should be included in a product requirements document?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What you will need to include in a PRD varies from business to business, and depends on a variety of factors, such as your industry vertical, and the product and development processes in your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should expect to see a detailed description of the product, its purpose, target audience, key features, user interface design, technical specifications, and other relevant information. Potentially even a timeline for development and launch and any potential risks or challenges associated with the product, though at ProdPad we prefer to work to timeline horizons (i.e. the Now-Next-Later roadmap<\/a>) rather than specific dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should also include a list of stakeholders involved in the project and their roles and responsibilities. Finally, it should include an acceptance criteria<\/a> section that outlines the requirements that must be met for the product to be considered successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do you write and manage a good product requirements document?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of steps to creating a PRD, and it needs input from a lot of different teams for it to be a useful document. While not every step is relevant for every project, more complex products will likely require more detailed PRDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you with the process, we have created a handy product requirements document template<\/a> that you can use to get the ball rolling. There are many questions that you’ll need to ask yourself and your key stakeholders to fill it out, though once you do it should help ensure everyone, from the product manager to the development and engineering teams, and everyone else involved in the project, is operating from a single source of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the key considerations from our PRD template are shown below. As you will see, there are many points to cover if you want to have a fully-realized product requirements document. However, it’s worth remembering that this is a static document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When establishing your product strategy<\/a>, you need to determine what place the product will have in your overall business strategy, and who it will serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other questions, you’ll need to consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n