{"id":6821,"date":"2022-09-02T12:41:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T07:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zv3d.wpengine.com\/us\/?p=6821"},"modified":"2024-12-18T17:53:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T12:23:50","slug":"mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of us product managers have struggled with the craft of creating \u201ccomplete\u201d Product Specs\/PRDs. This\u00a0 leads to engineers having a lack of clarity on what needs to be built, sales and business not being aligned in terms of what is being built vs what is being sold as well as executives and other stakeholders having a lack of clarity in terms of what exactly the vision and strategy of the product are in the product manager\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a quote from \u201cSystem Engineering Fundamentals\u201d for Product Requirements:<\/p>\n

\u201cDetermine the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking into account the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n

For the definition of a product specification, they promote proper documentation for a precise idea of the problem to be solved so that the designing would be efficient and the cost of design alternatives can be estimated.<\/p>\n

A spec should be crystal clear and technically concise that doesn\u2019t cater to any ambiguity which makes it the engineers easy to understand what they are actually going to work on. When we go deep down into the spec, it is much like a game plan which is made to act strategically with our product or service to achieve our goals.<\/p>\n

The spec should clearly answer the\u00a0What, Why, How,<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0When\u00a0<\/strong>something needs to be solved. It should be the single source of truth for the particular feature\/product which the engineering team can refer to and clearly begin on the solution with full clarity.<\/p>\n

There are some amazing companies out there that do excellent documentation for Product Specifications\/PRDs like Google, Facebook, Uber, and Microsoft. What are they doing right?<\/p>\n

There are so many elements in a product spec that are specific to the type of industry you are working in, whether you are working in a B2C or a B2B company, an early-stage company, or a company with a mature product line, etc.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go over some of the elements that make these specs really \u201ccomplete\u201d :<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Goals<\/strong>\u00a0should be SMART:\u00a0S<\/strong>pecific,\u00a0M<\/strong>easurable,\u00a0A<\/strong>ttainable,\u00a0R<\/strong>elevant, and\u00a0T<\/strong>imebound. An example of a bad goal would be- \u201cMake system XYZ faster\u201d; since what defines \u201cfast\u201d or \u201cfaster\u201d and when do we know whether the goal is met or not?<\/li>\n
  2. Assumptions:<\/strong> Don\u2019t assume that the assumptions made are known by the engineers, leadership, or any other stakeholders, convey all the assumptions clearly before that have been made as a baseline before starting a particular spec.<\/li>\n
  3. Non Goals:<\/strong>\u00a0We tend to keep our focus on \u2018do this to win\u2019 but it\u2019s also important to figure out what \u2018not to do\u2019 as well. This prevents scope creep and helps us focus on the right things. So clearly call out things that you are NOT chasing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Target Audience & User Personas:<\/strong>\u00a0Discover your target group of people with different personas who will be affected by your feature. Before writing individual feature specs, it\u2019s good to know the product\u2019s relevancy for the particular audience you are targeting and how it will affect them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Data Analysis\/Complete Analysis:<\/strong>\u00a0Publish the data analysis your team has done to give an insight into the problem statements or the solutions which you\u2019ve chosen to build. This gives a clear metric-driven insight into the product strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Hypothesis:<\/strong>\u00a0Companies like Facebook and Uber run hundreds of tests\/hypotheses every single week. For a B2C product, clearly call out any hypothesis that you are going to test with this particular feature release.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Feature List Table<\/strong>: The feature list table is a short summary of the whole spec which lists down all the sub-features with priorities, owners as well as calls out any other cross-team dependencies. This helps the engineering team plan out the feature efficiently and carve out individual sub-tasks and tickets.\n

            \"\"<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Features in Detail:<\/strong>\u00a0Document the complete description of the feature in detail.\u00a0 Based on the type of feature\u00a0 it should include wireframes\/flowcharts\/pseudocode for functional and business understanding. Wherever applicable, link to the UX design which lets all the stakeholders understand how the design should be.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Clearly call out the internal\/external dependencies.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Deployment Plan (GTM Strategy):<\/strong>\u00a0Define how you would want to launch your feature. Is the feature being launched in a phased manner as per user groups\/geographies or as per some other pivot?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                  \n
                1. \u00a0Metrics:<\/strong>\u00a0List out all the success metrics to be tracked. Depending on the type of the feature, you can use metrics frameworks like AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) or RED (Requests, Errors, Duration) or CSAT\/NPS.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    \n
                  1. \u00a0Anti-Metrics \/ Counter Metrics:<\/strong>\u00a0Document the risks posed thanks to your feature. What are the metrics to be tracked to manage the risk? What\u2019s the risk mitigation plan?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    1. \u00a0In concluding, here are some of the specific domain-related features you should be cognitive of, starting from\u00a0Security Sign-off\/Audit Sign-off\/Privacy Sign-off<\/strong>\u00a0for your privacy concerns,\u00a0Localisation<\/strong>\u00a0for international features that deliver support for different languages,\u00a0Future Enhancements<\/strong>\u00a0involves future vision with the plan and phases for the product,\u00a0Appendix<\/strong>\u00a0in which any kind of stuff you want to add, epic\/ticket links, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                      Thank you.<\/p>\n

                      Credits<\/p>\n

                      Speaker- Anand Kulkarni<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                      Expert strategies for creating complete Product Specs ensure clarity and alignment across engineering and stakeholders, facilitating efficient product development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-engg.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs - Zeta US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Expert strategies for clear Product Specs align engineering and stakeholders, streamlining development.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Expert strategies for clear Product Specs align engineering and stakeholders, streamlining development.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zeta US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LifeAtZeta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T07:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-18T12:23:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Team Zeta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/zetasuite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@zetasuite\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs - Zeta US","description":"Expert strategies for clear Product Specs align engineering and stakeholders, streamlining development.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs","og_description":"Expert strategies for clear Product Specs align engineering and stakeholders, streamlining development.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/","og_site_name":"Zeta US","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LifeAtZeta\/","article_published_time":"2022-09-02T07:11:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-18T12:23:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Team Zeta","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/zetasuite","twitter_site":"@zetasuite","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/"},"author":{"name":"Team Zeta","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/c53461c9d9812d486a10122752f61b35"},"headline":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs","datePublished":"2022-09-02T07:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-18T12:23:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/"},"wordCount":878,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs.png","articleSection":["Engineering"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/","name":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs - Zeta US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs.png","datePublished":"2022-09-02T07:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-18T12:23:50+00:00","description":"Expert strategies for clear Product Specs align engineering and stakeholders, streamlining development.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/Mastering-Product-Specs_-Zeta\u0393COs-Guide-to-Comprehensive-and-Clear-PRDs.png","width":600,"height":378},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/mastering-product-specs-zetas-guide-to-comprehensive-and-clear-prds\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mastering Product Specs: Zeta\u2019s Guide to Comprehensive and Clear PRDs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/","name":"Zeta US","description":"Launch Next-Gen Credit Cards With Zeta","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#organization","name":"Zeta","url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/02\/logo-white-xx.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/02\/logo-white-xx.png","width":114,"height":46,"caption":"Zeta"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LifeAtZeta\/","https:\/\/x.com\/zetasuite","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/zetasuite\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/c53461c9d9812d486a10122752f61b35","name":"Team Zeta","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4167de5b0a18bf54bbed35289788cbca3a1e16a9ba9a3c0aedffbdecd91c1df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4167de5b0a18bf54bbed35289788cbca3a1e16a9ba9a3c0aedffbdecd91c1df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Team Zeta"},"description":"Meet Team Zeta, a diverse group of experts who regularly contribute their insights to our blog. From banking trends to regulatory compliance, each Zetanaut brings a unique perspective to the table. Stay ahead of the curve by following our blog for the latest industry knowledge and expertise from Team Zeta.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/zetasuite","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/zetasuite"],"url":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/resources\/blog\/author\/teamzeta\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeta.tech\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}