product requirements document
also referred to as: prd · prds
20 statements across 18 episodes · 9 bullish · 4 bearish · 18 people on the record · first statement Jul 28, 2022 by Melissa Perri · across every show →
Everything said about product requirements document, oldest first
Jul 28, 2022 positive
Perri: Product strategy belongs in two-page memos, not 20-page PRDs
“And it's not like a product requirements document that's 20 pages. It's like a two pager just explaining what we're doing and why. And that context we usually throw into Google docs or a wiki or something like that, link them all together so that you can go fr…”
Oct 15, 2023 positive
Nov 5, 2023
Crowley: The most crucial part of a PRD explains why it matters now
“If you structure it correctly, the most important section, in my opinion, in the document is this the first part, which is like, what is the background and context? What is the problem? Why does it matter? And why does it matter now? And if you get those thing…”
Dec 3, 2023
May 12, 2024
Dhiman: Mid-senior PMs must still personally write PRDs and notes
“I don't think, especially when you're starting off, that's
a very, very good
Think even when you are mid senior, I don't think that's a very, very good thing.
You have to have to be able to produce these artifacts, which are product artifacts.
Even if there ar…”
Aug 18, 2024 negative
Oct 6, 2024 negative
Nickels: Product leaders cannot craft long-term vision in 30-minute meeting gaps
“It's not like something you can just schedule 30 minutes for in the middle of your day of packed OKR reviews and run on ones and meetings... Like to me, it's still insane. Like how many product managers, leaders of all kinds, right. Just run the schedule of li…”
May 18, 2025 positive
Chennapragada: Prompt sets are replacing PRDs in the AI era
“In this day and age, if you're not prototyping and building to see what you want to build, I think you're doing it wrong. I call it the prompt steps of the new PRDs, right? Like, I really insist on folks saying, if you're building new projects, new features, o…”
Jun 1, 2025 positive
The best software engineers do not need a PRD to start building
“I also think that the best engineers are the ones who actually don't need to start with a PRD. They can have a whiteboarding session with a PM, with a designer. They should have just an equal seat at the table in terms of what we are going to build. And then t…”
Jun 22, 2025
Deng: Imprecise language in PRDs and vision docs causes severe downstream issues
“Crafting is really important when you're working in product, because if you're sitting down and you're writing a vision doc or you're writing a PRD, and if you don't pay attention to the words you use and you're not intentional about it, those have downstream …”
Sep 25, 2025 positive
Rachitsky: Automated eval judges are the purest form of modern PRDs
“I've had some guests on the podcast recently who've been saying evals are the new PRDs. And if you look at this is exactly what this is like. Product managers, product teams, right? Here's what the product should be. Here's all the requirements. Here's like th…”
Feb 8, 2026 neutral
PMs are compensated for judgment and taste, not writing PRDs
“Good product managers, I think, are not compensated for writing good PRDs. They're compensated, again, for good judgment, right? Somebody else can do the writing. You, as somebody who directs and builds this product, you need to know, again, what, what's gonna…”
Mar 22, 2026 negative
Fain: Tech discourse claiming PRDs and software are dead is 'really dumb'
“I think takes like PRDs are dead or software is dead is like really dumb. I find it a little insufferable if I'm being spicy, because I still think what matters is understanding users, understanding business and economic dynamics, understanding Strategy and wh…”
Apr 5, 2026 negative
Apr 5, 2026 neutral
Apr 23, 2026 neutral
Wu: Anthropic still writes one-page PRDs for ambiguous and multi-month infrastructure features
“For features that are like particularly ambiguous, it does help to write out just a one pager on what the goals are what the delightful use cases are, what the failure modes currently are that we need to fix. And there are occasionally some projects, especiall…”
May 2, 2026 positive
Max Schoening: Writing PRDs is pointless when AI enables rough demos
“I think the first 10% of every project are now free. That's how I would describe it. So there is no point for most things to, for example, write a, I don't know. I, the thing is, has changed. I've never really been great at this, but like, there's no point in …”
Jun 28, 2026 positive
Jul 26, 2026 positive
Anthropic creates a PRD for every AI model it develops
“So when we do have a model, we actually, for every model, we do have a PRD. Less necessarily for our researchers, but more for our growing product surfaces, for our engineering teams, for our stakeholders like legal and safety and others as just a source of tr…”
Jul 26, 2026 positive