3 Lessons for Engineers from Well-Written Product Requirement Documents
Communication, User-Centricity, and Prioritization in Software Development
Hi, this is Samuel from Enginuity 👋 This post is part of the Product Engineer track and explores what lessons we, as software engineers, can learn from well-written PRDs.
You can find all three tracks in the main menu of the Enginuity Newsletter.
As software engineers, we encounter Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) most frequently in the late stages of creation or already when they are ready to be seen by development teams.
We read through them with the intent of understanding what needs to be done and how it can be done from a tech perspective.
In this post, we’ll look at PRDs from a different point of view:
What key principles are used in well-written PRDs that make them successful?
What lesson can we learn from these principles as software engineers?
How can we leverage these lessons in our day-to-day work?
Clear Objectives
A well-written PRD starts with defining clear and measurable objectives.
These objectives provide a roadmap for the entire project. The aim is that every team member understands:
the end goal
the criteria for success
the overall product vision
🎯 Alignment
Clearly defined objectives ensure all team members can align their efforts towards a common goal.
It removes ambiguity and reduces the risk of diverging paths. Two simple questions can validate every engineering or UX decision taken down the road:
Is this decision in alignment with the PRD’s objective?
If we do this work, will it bring us closer to achieving the objective?
If at least one of the answers is “no,” a different decision should be made, one that ensures the cohesiveness of the development process.
📊 Measurability
Clear objectives are measurable.
These metrics can be used to gauge whether the team is on track and, if not, make necessary adjustments as soon as possible.
You can use them at any point to assess the current state, progress, and, eventually, success.
At the same time, this approach minimizes the risk of misinterpretation and future errors.
Lesson 1: Communicate Clear Objectives
Communication with Management:
When communicating with management, articulate your priorities, goals, and progress clearly.
It should be apparent how your goals and the value you bring as a professional go hand-in-hand with their objectives.
- wrote a great article about how to make an impact when communicating with management in How to Impress in High-Stakes Presentations, which nicely ties to this topic.
Communication with Other Teams:
Clearly defined objectives make collaboration with other teams or departments, such as marketing or design, more effective.
Other teams are more willing to contribute to the project when they don’t need to exert an extra mental effort to understand the problem and how they can contribute to solving it.
Performance Reviews:
Setting clear, measurable objectives for personal and team goals helps in providing concrete evidence of achievements and areas you’ve improved.
The result is that performance evaluations are based on objective criteria rather than a subjective judgment of your superiors.
User-Centric Focus
A crucial aspect of well-written PRDs is their focus on understanding and addressing user needs.
Incorporating User personas and Use cases shifts perspective from purely technical considerations to a more user-centric approach, where the end product meets actual needs and provides an excellent user experience.
🤝 Empathy
Developing empathy for users helps create more intuitive and user-friendly products.
Understanding the context in which users operate enables PMs, UX designers, and engineers to anticipate and effectively address their needs.
Use cases—Specific scenarios in which a user interacts with a product to achieve a particular goal.
Analyzing and describing Use cases and testing the product with these use cases helps develop empathy for users.
Putting yourself in users’ shoes allows you to foresee how they will interact with the product and identify potential issues or improvements.
and wrote a great article about why and how to practice “dogfooding” in Using your own product is a superpower.✅ Relevance
Products designed with a user-centric focus are more likely to meet market demands and succeed.
User satisfaction translates into higher adoption rates and better user retention.
User personas—Fictional characters that represent user types that might use your product in a similar way.
Identifying User personas allows us to use real data to understand what needs the product is going to satisfy and what potential market size it’s going to address.
These personas help visualize the end users and their:
needs
preferences
pain points
This understanding is the core of designing features that genuinely solve user problems.
Lesson 2: Advocate For User Needs
Professional Growth:
Thinking about problems from the user's perspective improves your problem-solving process. The solutions for these problems are usually more innovative and effective, translating into your higher value within the team and the organization.
Engineers prioritizing user needs more easily identify opportunities for new product improvements or features. This proactive approach can position them as key contributors to the company's strategic direction.
If you haven’t yet, check my previous post on this topic:
Influence:
Engineers who advocate for users can become leaders within their teams or product areas. They can help make decisions that prioritize user satisfaction and drive product success.
When proposing new features or changes to management, frame the discussion around user needs and benefits. It makes it more persuasive. Demonstrating user-centricity can help secure buy-in from stakeholders.
Implementing a user-centric approach in QA processes ensures that testing scenarios reflect real-world use cases, which leads to products that better meet user expectations.
Prioritization and Trade-offs
As we all know, not all features and requirements can be implemented simultaneously. Therefore, prioritizing features is a critical aspect of creating effective PRDs.
By prioritizing, we can focus on delivering the most valuable aspects first, ensuring that the product meets essential user needs and business objectives within the given constraints.
⏳ Value Delivery
Prioritization ensures that the most important and impactful functionalities are developed first, providing immediate value to users and stakeholders.
Without proper prioritization, the allocated time and budget are not used effectively because people are scattered across a multitude of tasks.
That’s why all available resources should be focused on high-priority features from the beginning.
Delivering these critical features early reduces the likelihood of major setbacks later in the project because potential risks can be identified and resolved as soon as possible.
⚖️ Informed Decision-Making
Effective PRDs include discussions about trade-offs.
It involves making informed choices that align with overall project goals while considering:
technical limitations (quality, NFRs, …)
resource constraints (time, money, …)
user needs (UX, feasibility, …)
The problem is that even though some informed choices are made at the beginning of the project, as time passes, many limitations and constraints also change.
The only constant in life is change. — Heraclitus
Therefore, both the PRD and the development process must adapt to these changing circumstances and requirements.
They need strategic thinking—weighing the pros and cons of different options to determine the best course of action for the project’s success.
Lesson 3: Think Strategically
Time Management:
Identify and focus on tasks that have the highest impact on your project or personal development. For example, tackling critical bug fixes or key features first can lead to significant improvements.
The same principle applies to professional development. When deciding which skills to develop, consider trade-offs—time investment vs. potential benefits. Focus on skills that offer the highest value and align with your long-term goals.
- wrote an extensive article, which I highly recommend, about different frameworks that can be used for prioritization based on specific prioritization attributes: How to set priorities?
Negotiation:
In PRDs, critical functionalities are distinguished from nice-to-haves. Do the same before entering a negotiation—identify and prioritize your needs and wants. Understand which aspects are non-negotiable and where you have flexibility.
At the same time, considering the priorities of the other party aims for a win-win scenario. Understanding the needs and constraints of the other party allows you to propose solutions that satisfy both sides.
Summary
The three lessons from the well-written Product requirement documents:
Communicate clear objectives to create alignment, measurable outcomes, and targeted focus.
Advocate for user needs to identify new opportunities and create impactful changes both in products and your career.
Think strategically by addressing the most impactful and relevant work from the beginning while keeping in mind trade-offs and constraints.
📖 More From Enginuity
In the last installment of the Product Engineer track, I explored the foundation of the product engineering mindset and how it creates opportunities and builds a well-rounded approach to software engineering:
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