PRD Template

What's in this PRD template

Every section maps to a check SpecGuard runs — so missing pieces become findings you can fix before sprint zero.

• Summary & problem statement
• Goals and explicit non-goals
• Personas and user stories
• Functional & non-functional requirements
• Acceptance criteria (Given/When/Then)
• Edge cases and failure modes
• Dependencies, risks, open questions
• Success metrics & rollout plan

The template

# [Product/Feature Name] — Product Requirements Document

**Author:** [Name]  
**Status:** Draft | In Review | Approved  
**Last updated:** YYYY-MM-DD  
**Stakeholders:** [PM, Eng Lead, Design, QA, Data]

## 1. Summary
One paragraph: what we're building, who it's for, and the outcome we expect.

## 2. Problem
- What problem are we solving?
- Who has this problem? How often?
- Evidence: user research, support tickets, analytics, win/loss notes.

## 3. Goals & Non-Goals
**Goals**
- G1: [Measurable outcome]
- G2: [Measurable outcome]

**Non-Goals**
- N1: [Explicitly out of scope]

## 4. Target Users & Personas
- Primary persona: [role, context, jobs-to-be-done]
- Secondary persona: [role, context]

## 5. User Stories
- As a [persona], I want to [action] so that [outcome].
- As a [persona], I want to [action] so that [outcome].

## 6. Functional Requirements
| ID  | Requirement                       | Priority |
|-----|-----------------------------------|----------|
| F1  | [Specific, testable behavior]     | Must     |
| F2  | [Specific, testable behavior]     | Should   |
| F3  | [Specific, testable behavior]     | Could    |

## 7. Non-Functional Requirements
- Performance: p95 latency < 500ms
- Availability: 99.9% monthly
- Security: [authn, authz, data classification]
- Accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
- Privacy & compliance: [GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, ...]

## 8. Acceptance Criteria
- AC1: Given [context], when [action], then [observable result].
- AC2: Given [context], when [action], then [observable result].

## 9. UX / Flows
- Link to designs: [Figma URL]
- Key flows: [list]
- Empty, loading, and error states defined.

## 10. Edge Cases
- What happens offline?
- What happens at quota limits?
- Concurrent edits / race conditions?
- Permissions denied / unauthorized?

## 11. Dependencies
- Upstream: [APIs, services, teams]
- Downstream: [consumers]

## 12. Risks & Open Questions
- R1: [Risk] — Mitigation: [...]
- Q1: [Open question] — Owner: [Name], Due: [Date]

## 13. Success Metrics
- North-star: [metric + target]
- Guardrails: [metric + threshold]
- Instrumentation: [events, dashboards]

## 14. Rollout Plan
- Feature flag: [name]
- Phases: internal → 1% → 10% → 100%
- Rollback plan: [steps]

## 15. Out of Scope
- [Items explicitly deferred]

How to write a great PRD

1. 1. Lead with the problem. Don't describe the solution before everyone agrees on the problem and who has it.
2. 2. Make every requirement testable. If QA can't write a test for it, rewrite it.
3. 3. Quantify NFRs. Replace "fast" and "real-time" with concrete latency targets.
4. 4. List non-goals explicitly. Scope creep starts where non-goals are missing.
5. 5. Define edge cases up front. Offline, quota-exceeded, permission-denied, and concurrent edits all need answers.

FAQ