PRD — Product Requirements Document

Translate product vision and research into clear, actionable engineering specifications. Produces PRD-[product-name].md output files following an 8-section structure.

Output file naming: PRD-[product-name].md (e.g., PRD-sso-invite-flow.md )

The 8-Section PRD Template

PRD: [Feature Name]

Author: [Name] | Status: Draft | In Review | Approved | Shipped | Date: YYYY-MM-DD

1. Summary

One paragraph: what we're building and why it matters now.

2. Contacts

3. Background

• What triggered this initiative? (data, customer request, strategic bet)
• Relevant prior work or research
• Constraints and assumptions

4. Objective

1. [Primary goal with measurable outcome]
2. [Secondary goal]

Non-Goals (explicit out-of-scope):

• [What we are NOT doing]

5. Market Segments

6. Value Propositions

7. Solution

User Stories (P0 — Must Have)

• As a [persona], I want [goal], so that [benefit].

User Stories (P1 — Should Have)

• ...

Acceptance Criteria

See story-level criteria below each story.

Dependencies

Risks & Mitigations

8. Release

Success Metrics:

User Stories

Standard Format

As a [type of user], I want [goal/desire], so that [benefit/value].

INVEST Criteria

Every story must pass all six checks before it's "ready":

Criterion Check

Independent No hard dependencies on other in-flight stories

Negotiable Details are a conversation starter, not a contract

Valuable Clearly answers "so what?"

Estimable Team can size it without major unknowns

Small Completable in 1-5 days

Testable Has explicit acceptance criteria

Incorrect — vague story:

As a user, I want better reporting.

Correct — INVEST story with acceptance criteria:

As a sales manager, I want to see my team's pipeline grouped by stage, so that I can identify bottlenecks and coach accordingly.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Shows deals grouped by stage with count and total value per stage
• Filters by date range (default: current quarter)
• Updates in real-time when deals change stages
• Accessible at /pipeline for all users with the "manager" role

Acceptance Criteria (Given/When/Then)

Use Gherkin format for testable criteria:

Scenario: Successful login with valid credentials Given I am on the login page And I have a valid account When I enter my email and password And I click "Sign In" Then I should be redirected to the dashboard And I should see a "Welcome back" message

Value Proposition Canvas Integration

Before writing the solution section, complete the value canvas to ensure fit:

Customer Profile (right) Value Map (left) ───────────────────────── ───────────────────────── Jobs-to-be-Done ◄──── Products & Services • Functional jobs • Features and capabilities • Social jobs • Emotional jobs

Pains ◄──── Pain Relievers • Obstacles and risks • How we eliminate friction • Undesired outcomes

Gains ◄──── Gain Creators • Required and expected • How we create benefits outcomes

Fit check: Every item in the Value Map must correspond to at least one Job, Pain, or Gain. Remove features with no matching customer need.

Go/No-Go Gate Criteria

Use stage gates before committing to build:

Gate 2: Solution Validation (before starting dev)

• Value proposition tested with ≥ 3 customer interviews
• Technical feasibility confirmed by engineering lead
• Competitive differentiation is clear
• Unit economics viable (projected CAC < LTV/3)

Gate 3: Business Case (before sprint planning)

• ROI > 15% hurdle rate
• Payback period < 24 months
• Resource requirements confirmed (FTEs, infra)
• Risk mitigation plan in place

Scoring thresholds: Go ≥ 7.0 | Conditional Go 5.0–6.9 | No-Go < 5.0

Priority Levels

Level Meaning Criteria

P0 Must have for MVP Users cannot accomplish core job without this

P1 Important Significantly improves experience, high demand

P2 Nice to have Enhances experience, moderate demand

P3 Future Backlog for later consideration

Definition of Ready / Done

Ready (before sprint):

• User story follows As a/I want/So that format
• Acceptance criteria are complete and testable
• Dependencies identified and resolved
• Story is estimated by the team
• Design artifacts available (if applicable)

Done (after dev):

• Code complete and reviewed
• Unit and integration tests passing
• Acceptance criteria verified by PM
• Documentation updated
• Deployed to staging

Non-Functional Requirements

Always include NFRs in the PRD solution section:

Category Example

Performance Page load < 2s at p95

Scalability 10,000 concurrent users

Availability 99.9% uptime

Security Data encrypted at rest and in transit

Accessibility WCAG 2.1 AA

PRD JSON Output Schema

When producing structured PRD output for automated pipelines:

{ "prd": { "title": "SSO Invite Flow", "version": "1.0", "author": "PM Name", "status": "draft" }, "problem_statement": "Team admins cannot invite members via SSO, blocking enterprise onboarding.", "scope": { "in": ["Email-based SSO invite", "Role assignment on first login"], "out": ["Custom SAML provider", "Mobile biometric auth"] }, "user_stories": [ { "id": "US-001", "persona": "Team Admin", "story": "As a team admin, I want to invite members via email, so that onboarding is self-service.", "acceptance_criteria": [ "Invite email sent within 30 seconds", "Invited user can set password on first visit", "Admin sees pending/accepted status" ], "priority": "must-have" } ], "non_functional": { "performance": "Invite flow completes in < 2s p95", "security": "Invite tokens expire after 72 hours" } }

Rules (Load On-Demand)

• research-requirements-prd.md — INVEST user stories, PRD template, priority levels, DoR/DoD

• strategy-value-prop.md — Value proposition canvas, JTBD framework, fit assessment

• strategy-go-no-go.md — Stage gate criteria, scoring, build/buy/partner decision matrix

References

• output-templates.md — Structured JSON output schemas for PRD, business case, and strategy artifacts

• value-prop-canvas-guide.md — Detailed value proposition canvas facilitation guide

Related Skills

• ork:user-research — Build user understanding (personas, journey maps, interviews) before writing the PRD

• ork:product-frameworks — Full PM framework suite (business cases, RICE, OKRs, metrics)

Version: 1.0.0