5️⃣ Steps to a killer product requirements document 🎯

Step 1: Define your who, what, when, why, and how

Before you can create your document, you need to answer the questions above. Who is in charge? What are you building? Why does it matter? Etc. Pay special attention to the why—the business case, the customer need, the team need—behind the project.

Gathering these answers often means collaborating across teams, using past projects as a template (or what to do or what not to do), and—most importantly—understanding business priorities and customer needs. It also may mean incorporating documentation that has come before, including business strategy docs and MRDs.

Step 2: Craft your user stories

What do your users need to do with this product? Most PRDs include a list of user stories with prioritization, links to additional documentation, and any relevant notes.

The best way to craft these is through user research. And a common pitfall is thinking that we are our users—that our needs and knowledge of the product are fully shared with those who use it. Make sure to validate those assumptions before moving forward.

As with any documentation, it’s important to find the balance between thoroughness and simplicity. Some PRDs have three user stories. Some have 10. If this section starts to feel too long, it may be time to check in with your teams to make sure they can accomplish everything in the time allotted.

Step 3: Collaborate and edit

Once you’ve documented the product plan it’s time to get stakeholder input.

Make sure each involved team has an opportunity to weigh in—to flag missing dependencies, incorrect assumptions, missing information, etc.

Use that feedback to polish your document before you share it more widely.

Step 4: Finalize the doc and share, share, share

Share your document widely and make sure it’s easily available for people to consult during the project. Stakeholders should be involved early and often.

Make sure your document reflects real user needs and the expertise of stakeholders across your organization.

The document should specify what needs to be done but allow room for teams to use their expertise to define how to get it done.

Step 5: Keep it up to date

For a lot of companies, this is the missing piece: making sure that your documentation reflects change as it happens.

Did Team A discover a new dependency? Did Team B get pulled onto a higher priority project that impacts your timeline? Has there been a leadership change? Did a new user need become apparent during testing?

As these things happen (and they do often happen!) someone needs to be in charge of keeping the documentation up to date and reflective of the most recent information, links, etc. Don’t skip this step!

Article Credit : ClickUp

Ready to start your own PRD? We’ve got a (free) template for that. Use ClickUp’s Products Requirement Template to develop, draft, collaborate, and (ultimately) share your product plan.