Product Requirements Document: A Beginner’s Guide In 5 Easy Steps

Introduction

 Before a product is developed, manufactured, and then launched in the market, there is a need for a certain kind of document that defines the features, value, and purpose of that particular product. A document or a guide that contains all the requirements of a product is popularly known as PRD, where PRD meaning product requirements document. Usually, in the stakeholder’s meeting, the process of requirements gathering is done.

In this process, exploitation of all kinds of requirements gathering documents required for the project is gathered, including Product requirements Documents. To understand PRD in detail, we must ask certain questions such as what is a PRD? What is the purpose of writing a product requirements document? And what are its benefits? In this article, we will learn about PRD and get all the doubts and questions sorted out.

1. What is a Product Requirement Document?
2. Components of PRD
3. Importance of Product Requirements Document
4. Steps to writing Product Requirements Document
5. Product Requirements Document Example

1) What is a Product Requirement Document?

 In simple terms, a product requirement document or PRD document is a document that defines the requirements of some particular kind of product. PRD must include the purpose of the product, its features, behavior, and functionality of the product, and everything needed to launch a product successfully in the market. The product manager writes a PRD to convey the need, the product idea to fulfill that need, how that product will be built, who will be the consumers, and the beneficial outcome from the developed product to the end-users. PRD management is a task of high value, and it must be done properly.

Often, PRD is confused with BRD. BRD stands for a Business requirements document. The purpose of the business document is to prevent wasted efforts on the factors that do not affect business objectives. BRD is usually written by a business analyst or business executive or a product marketing manager and sometimes by the product manager(s).

2) Components of PRD

In this section of the article, we will learn how to write a Product requirement document with an example. The structure may vary in different organizations, but we will look at the basic structure of PRD. A PRD will include everything that must be considered in the release of the product. It serves as a guide in the release process, and it describes the potential implementation of the product, mostly a software product. Below are some of the important points that’ll how to write product requirements and describe the PRD design or the format of a product requirements document.

• The first thing to mention in the PRD file is the purpose of the product. The purpose of the product must revolve around three important points: the problem this product will solve, who will be the users, and why it is important.
• The second most important thing is setting the right goals and objectives for the product to be developed. This part of the requirement document explains thy a certain product will be introduced and what the outcomes are to be expected from the product.
• Once the goals and objectives are discussed, the next important thing to mention is the product’s features. For each feature, a description must be added. The description of a certain feature must be of the minimum detail needed to understand the feature being included.
• Including the virtual design of the product may help in illustrating how the product will look like. This helps in understanding the engineering behind the product and how the product’s functionality would be implemented.  
• System and Environment requirement is the next point to be added to the product requirements document. It speaks about the type of system or environment a user would possess to use the product. The system and environment requirements can be about the type of browser, required operating system, memory, space, processing detail, etc.

3) Importance of Product Requirements Document

Product requirement document (PRD) plays a significant role in product marketing as PRD sets a balance between vision and its purpose. It is important to define the technical and business perspective. The purpose of the product is the most important thing that a PRD must include.

• It answers the questions such as what this product will change in the lives of the people or the users, which problem it puts a full stop to, and why they should use it? 
• The second important area that PRD covers are the features of the product to be developed. It must share the product’s clear idea with proper usages of the product and who will be the consumers of the product.
• PRD is usually written for software projects.
• Another purpose that the product requirements document fulfills is defining the release criteria, which is now popularly known as Minimum viable Product. 
• A PRD is written from the consumers’ or the users’ point of view. It clearly defines the product’s motive to be developed that why a user should use the product, and what problem it will solve in their lives.

4. Steps to writing Product Requirements Document

A PRD can be made with basic steps followed in a queue. Below are the five points to write an effective product requirements document:

• Start with defining the purpose of the product.
• Mention the features of the product and add a description to each of the features.
• Write the Goals and Objectives that are to be achieved with the product release.
• Set the goals and objectives with certain timelines.
• In the end, make sure that the stakeholders review it.

5) Product Requirements Document Example

Any PRD would contain the following:

• Purpose
• Objective
• Features
• User Stories
• Functional and non-functional features
• Scope

The product requirements document highlights the requirement to be fulfilled to develop and launch a product, especially a software product in the market. It is written by the product manager to set the course for the release of a particular product in the market. Finally, it is approved after sharing a PRD of the product with the stakeholders, and it is finalized after reviews of the stakeholders.

Conclusion

Interested to learn all about Product Management from the best minds in the industry? Check out our Product Management Course. This 6-month-long program takes place online through live instructor-led sessions. It is the only program in India that offers the ‘Bring Your Own Product (BYOP)’ feature so that learners can build their product idea into a full-blown product, and go through an entire Product Development lifecycle. Not only this, but this is the only program in India with a curriculum that conforms to the 5i Framework. Post completion, learners receive a joint certification from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and Jigsaw Academy. 

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