As a new product manager, one of the first things you’ll encounter is the alphabet soup of documents: BRD, PRD, SRD, and the list goes on.
It can feel like you’re wading through endless acronyms just to get started.
Two of the most important ones you’ll need to master early on are the Business Requirements Document (BRD) and Product Requirements Document (PRD).
These documents may seem similar, but they serve very different purposes, and getting them confused can cause serious hiccups later on.
So, how do you tell them apart, and more importantly, when should you use each? Let’s break it down. 📋
BRD vs. PRD: What New Product Managers Need to Know
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is a Business Requirements Document (BRD)?
A business requirements document (BRD) is a formal report that outlines high-level business goals, objectives, and needs. It explains the what and why of a project or product functionality.
A BRD serves as the go-to guide to ensure business analysts, product managers, and project managers are on the same page about business goals.
Think of it as a declaration of intent. Laying out the business objectives metrics will clarify the impact of your project and help you prioritize what matters most. It will also align your team and keep them moving in the same direction.
Let’s understand the key components of the document. 👇
- Executive summary: A summary of the entire document outlining project requirements
- Project/feature objectives: A description of the project’s goals (or the feature’s goals), objectives, and outcomes
- Project scope and business requirements: A definition of the scope of work to stay within defined boundaries
- Stakeholders: An identification of the project’s key stakeholders with specified roles and responsibilities
- Timeline: A detailed timeline of the project, including different phases within the project
- Budget including a cost-benefit analysis: A specific budget with associated project costs and expected benefits. A cost-benefit analysis helps build a case for the return on investment (ROI) of the project
- Constraints: Any project limitations that may arise and resources to overcome them
Here’s a handy BRD template to help you lay out your project needs in no time.
ClickUp Business Requirements Document Template
The ClickUp Business Requirements Document template provides a robust framework for outlining your project’s business solution. It clearly defines project goals and deliverables, ensuring you align all team members.
With this template, you can easily create detailed specifications to make your project’s requirements transparent and easy to follow.
Testing your solution is another critical step in which this template shines. You can document test cases directly, allowing easy reference during the testing phase. This way, you can validate every requirement against real-world scenarios before implementation.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is a Product Requirements Document (PRD)?
A product requirements document (PRD) is a product blueprint defining its purpose, features, functionality, and behavior. It’s a guide for business, technical, and development teams working on the product, helping you tackle risks early on.
As a product manager, you’re responsible for curating the PRD. So, what exactly goes into it?
Let’s break it down. ⚒️
- Description of the product: Provides an overview of the product and how it fits into a broader market or company vision
- Purpose: Details why the product is being developed and the specific business problems it aims to solve
- Target audience: Identifies end users to understand their pain points and expectations, often including potential users’ demographics and behaviors
- Key features: Highlights the product’s core features and functionality, with each feature broken down for clarity
- User interface design: Focuses on the product’s look and feel, detailing how users will interact with it
- Technical specifications: Covers the technical details for the engineering team, including software architecture, data storage, performance needs, and frameworks
The PRD is a living document that you constantly update as the product’s lifecycle progresses.
A well-crafted PRD translates high-level business goals into detailed and actionable steps, focusing on user needs and technical specifications.
The document also highlights whether the product meets customer needs and expectations. By focusing on the user’s perspective and nailing down technical specifics, a PRD helps teams build products that are functional and impactful. This drives better results for both the business and the end users.
Time to draft your PRD? This template will help you get it done quickly and efficiently.
ClickUp Product Requirements Document Template
The ClickUp Product Requirements Document Template provides a structured format for defining every aspect of your product, from its purpose to core features to technical requirements.
It serves as a central point for collaboration among product, design, and engineering teams. This template will ensure alignment and effective communication throughout the product’s development cycle.
It’s a go-to reference for keeping everyone in sync and simplifying decision-making.
🌟 Also Read: Product Requirements Documents: An Expert Guide
Summarize this article for me pleasePRD vs. BRD: Key Differences
PRD and BRD—what’s the real difference? These two documents are key and tackle different parts of the project.
Let’s dive into how they each play a unique role. 📊
1. Purpose
A PRD zeroes in on how a product’s functionality and features can fulfill business needs. It focuses on how to deliver results.
💡Example: The product is a mobile banking app with features like account balance display, fund transfers, and multi-factor authentication for both iOS and Android.
🔎 Focus: The features and functionality of the mobile app must be designed and created to meet the business goal.
A BRD defines high-level business needs or problems that a project or product will address. It focuses on what the business aims to achieve.
💡 Example: The business needs a more convenient way for customers to manage their finances to boost retention by 15% and reduce in-branch visits by 30% over the next year.
🔎 Focus: The business goal is improving customer convenience and retention.
2. Audience
A PRD is geared towards:
- Development teams—engineers, designers, technicians
- Quality assurance teams
- Product managers
A BRD speaks to:
- Business stakeholders
- Senior management
- Marketing teams
- External clients
3. Scope
A PRD has a narrow scope and focuses on product-specific features and capabilities. It’s all about the details—exactly how the product will function, technical requirements, edge cases, and user stories.
💡Example: A PRD for a mobile app might include details like fingerprint login, main dashboard design, and error-handling mechanisms.
On the other hand, a BRD covers the big picture, focusing on overarching business goals and strategies. It doesn’t dive into the nitty-gritty of how things will be built.
💡Example: A BRD might outline objectives like ‘increase customer engagement’ or ‘provide fast access to banking services.’ It also touches on market needs and expected ROI.
4. Primary objectives
A PRD provides clear, actionable guidelines for the development team to build a product. It bridges the gap between business requirements and technical execution, making sure the product does what the business set out to achieve.
Meanwhile, the BRD’s goal is to align everyone on the business needs and create a shared vision for the project. It helps clarify why the project is happening and ensures everyone understands its purpose.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhen to Use BRD and PRD
Not sure if you need a BRD or a PRD right now?
Here’s a closer look at when to use each. 📂
BRD use cases
A BRD is typically created at the outset of a project. It ensures alignment among stakeholders, minimizes ambiguity, and helps identify potential risks. It’s also crucial for securing executive buy-in and budget approval.
Here’s when you’ll want to draft a BRD:
- Planning projects and setting strategic direction: Use a BRD to outline project needs and objectives, ensuring everyone is on the same page and avoiding costly delays that come with scope changes
- Creating and replacing applications: Gather all business requirements needed to build a new application or replace an old one within this document
- Responding to requests for proposals (RFPs): Draft a BRD to address RFPs for new projects, detailing business needs and expectations
- Defining business needs: If a company is expanding, a BRD helps define and document the necessary business needs
- Business problem solving: A BRD helps detail business problems and the desired outcomes
- Prioritizing market needs: Entering a new market? A BRD identifies key opportunities and aligns them with business goals
Did You Know? Other types of business docs such as a functional requirements document (FRD) and a market requirements document (MRD), are used by engineering and marketing departments respectively. A software requirements document (SRD) defines the functions and performance standards for the software. Often, it also outlines the features and details the product must have to address internal and external stakeholders’ needs.
PRD use cases
A PRD comes into play throughout the product development lifecycle. It begins by defining the product and its requirements and continues to ensure the product is built as intended.
Here are some use cases for a PRD:
- Translating business needs into product features: The document outlines how a product will function and lists its features
- Providing clear requirements: The PRD defines technical details so developers know exactly what needs to be built
- Defining user stories: Drafting a PRD with user stories is essential to clarify requirements and focus on user needs. For example, ‘As a user, I want to filter data by date range’
- Ensuring product meets business goals: It aligns the product’s functionality with overarching business objectives, such as designing a live chatbot or adding FAQs to reduce customer support queries
- Coordinating cross-functional teams: A PRD connects the design, quality assurance, and engineering teams to align their efforts
- Managing edge cases and error handling: The document specifies how to handle edge cases and errors, ensuring a smooth user experience and effective error management
Also Read: Top 10 Product Backlog Management Tools
Summarize this article for me pleaseBest Practices for Creating BRD and PRD
Getting your BRD and PRD right means sticking to some solid best practices.
ClickUp’s Product Management Software can help you implement these practices effortlessly and keep everything on track. See how. 🎯
Tips to write a BRD
Creating a BRD might seem like a huge task, but it becomes much more manageable when you break it down into clear objectives and prioritize work based on your timeline.
Follow these tips, and you’ll be well on your way to writing a solid BRD.
Tip 1. Learn from previous successful projects
Start by looking back at your organization’s successful projects. These examples contain valuable lessons for crafting your new BRD.
Pay attention to:
- What worked well and what didn’t
- Challenges that came up along the way
- Dependencies that impacted your project
- Elicitation methods that helped gather accurate requirements
Use these insights to shape your new BRD and ensure it’s on track. Reflecting on past experiences can help you avoid common pitfalls and improve your approach. Additionally, using document management software to gather, organize, and review your research can streamline the process and enhance the overall quality of your document.
Tip 2. Capture your requirements
Gathering and understanding what your stakeholders need—from big-picture goals to technical details—is key.
Here are some common elicitation methods you can use:
- Brainstorming
- Document analysis
- Focus groups
- Interface analysis
- Interviews
- Observations
- Prototyping
- Surveys and questionnaires
Ensure you’re capturing everything clearly and concisely—these requirements will guide the rest of your project. Another tip to do this efficiently is to create a shared document for all stakeholders.
ClickUp Docs is your go-to tool for gathering and organizing your team’s requirements.
It enables seamless collaboration by allowing stakeholders to edit documents in real time within a unified workspace.
Tip 3. Use clear, jargon-free language
BRDs can often be lengthy and detailed, which might make them hard for your team to follow.
To make things easier, use clear and straightforward language throughout the document. Keep your explanations relatable and concise to ensure everyone understands the key points.
Additionally, include a glossary at the end for any unavoidable technical terms. This will save time and prevent misunderstandings later.
Tip 4. Add visual elements and peer review
Diagrams, charts, and other visual aids break up text-heavy documents and help convey your points better. They’re easier for individuals to understand and make your content more compelling.
With Docs’ rich text formatting capabilities, you can easily categorize content into different sections, making it simple to keep track of everything, from meeting minutes to crucial research, throughout various project stages.
Additionally, you can include tables, checklists, columns, banners, task lists, and other multimedia elements such as images, videos, icons, and emojis.
After you’ve finished writing the BRD, have your peers review and validate it. Getting feedback from colleagues can help you spot any gaps or inconsistencies that you might have missed.
This step is crucial because it allows you to address any issues before they become problems later on. Making adjustments during the review phase is far more efficient than trying to fix issues mid-project when they could disrupt progress and cause delays.
Also Read: 11 Best Product Management Software Tools
PRD templates are a great way to get started. However, writing a detailed document with tons of specifications and research may feel overwhelming.
We’ve simplified the process for you. Here are some tips on how to write a PRD.
Tip 1. Research, research, and research
If you want to create an exceptional product, you need to understand the problem it’s solving inside out. And that starts with research.
Here’s how:
- Know your customers: Dive deep into their needs and the problems they’re facing. Why does it matter to them? What’s the impact or cost of not solving it?
- Analyze your competitors: Explore how your competitors are solving the same problem. What are their strengths and weaknesses? More importantly, how can you deliver a better solution?
- Consult your marketing, sales, and technical teams: Your internal teams might have new insights into the problem that can help you build a product feature better
- Assess your team’s capabilities: Find out whether your product team can handle the problem and what tools and technologies they are already comfortable with
- Study available technologies: Look into solutions that can help you tackle the problem. What are their pros and cons?
Tip 2. Define the purpose and principles
This step will be easy once you research everything you need to know.
Start by crafting a clear value proposition that explains how your product meets a specific need. Keep this statement brief—like an elevator pitch you can deliver in under a minute.
Next, define the guiding principles for your product. These principles will help steer your team throughout the product development process.
💡 Example: If you’re creating a medical device, the principles would be:
- Safety
- Reliability
- Ease of use
These principles will tighten your value proposition and steer your team through the development process.
Tip 3. Identify user profiles, goals, and tasks
You must be clear about who you’re building the product for.
To get a clear picture of your product’s users, start by:
- Building user profiles: Define your target users by creating detailed user personas. You can start by indicating the target user’s gender, age, industry, job function, and other demographic data. It’d be helpful if you included habits, attitudes, needs, and desires they might have that influence the product
- Identifying user goals: Understand your user’s primary objective for using the product. What will they accomplish? What are the obstacles standing in their way?
- Gathering user tasks: Collaborate with your team to outline tasks that will help users accomplish their goals. Encourage creative thinking in this exercise
Tip 4. Specify product features
Once your team starts filling in the bulk of your PRD, you need to start describing the detailed features of your product. Note the constraints that can be placed upon the design of the product and gauge any assumptions made while defining requirements.
Note that each product’s functionality comes under functional requirements, highlighting what the product must be able to do.
Limitations such as performance, security, and usability will come under non-functional requirements.
To simplify this process, ClickUp Brain, an AI-powered assistant within the ClickUp platform, streamlines your documentation process.
You can input all essential details, such as product goals, features, target audience, and constraints. Based on this information, the AI will generate a PRD for you.
ClickUp Brain also provides real-time summaries and insights from existing tasks and documents within the ClickUp workspace. This helps your team reference relevant information without manually searching through multiple documents.
👀 Bonus: Consider using no-code tools for product managers. They offer an efficient way to manage product roadmaps, handle customer feedback, and prioritize user experience.
Summarize this article for me pleaseDraft Excellent BRDs and PRDs with ClickUp
Business and product requirements documents are crucial for steering your projects toward success. They help align your team by addressing all business goals and product specs.
ClickUp, an all-in-one project management tool, can take things up a notch by centralizing your workflow and communication.
With its powerful documentation and AI-powered features, ClickUp enhances collaboration, reduces misunderstandings, prevents scope creep, and boosts productivity.
Sign up for ClickUp today!
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