Screw the PRD – find your own template!

I struggle to sit down and write out a one-and-done PRD – pre-defined headings, expectations of 10-15 pages (or more) of material covering all the subjects, consequences, requirements and stakeholders’ needs. 

My last initiative-guiding document wasn’t even a PRFAQ – I didn’t write the press release, but I did spell out a set of Mike’s Beliefs (after another PM prodded me to write down what I’d been ranting), then an evolving set of outcome-focused requirements (assembled over 5-7 sittings), then summarising a Vision (North Star guide), “what does done look like”, “what does success look like once we measure what we’ve launched” and an FAQ just simply to catch-all the questions I didn’t immediately answer. 

But that document didn’t even come at the inception of the project. I’m coordinating the data schema, API inventory and ecosystem needs of a much larger project – and at first I wanted to see where the gaps were, what conversations emerged, and where folks already had figured out what we need. 

My announcement of this doc came ~2 months after we’d already started – more of a codification of our direction, sharpening the focus and a bright-line reminder of what everyone already suspected we’d need to do. 

Here’s my current template:

Business Need

• What problems were facing as a business, why we need to solve for them.

Vision

• This is the nearest equivalent to the Press Release. It’s what I intend to say to the intended market. 

Beliefs about what we need to achieve

• these are the hypotheses, assumptions and requirements all wrapped up together

What does done look like?

• Features and implementation shapes. How to measure “have we done enough to ship, and to start learning from the market at scale?”

What does success look like after we’re done?

• How to see that our results have met the market need as defined up front.

FAQs

• The misc slop that doesn’t fit anywhere else