PRD Template for Software Projects (Copy and Adapt)

October 22, 2026 · 6 min read

A product requirements document (PRD) says what you are building, for whom and why, and how you will know it worked. It does not say how to build it. The template below is short on purpose: a PRD that nobody finishes reading does not protect anyone from misunderstandings.

Copy the structure, delete what does not apply, and keep each section as short as it can be while still answering its question.

What a PRD is for

A PRD is the agreement between the people who want something and the people who will build it. It earns its keep in three moments: when the team starts work, when someone proposes a change, and when you decide whether the result is good enough.

If a section does not help in one of those moments, cut it. A long PRD is not a thorough one; it is usually one that has not been edited.

A PRD is also not the same document as a business requirements document or a software requirements specification. A BRD records the business need, a PRD describes the product's behaviour, and an SRS is the detailed technical specification. If you are unsure which one you need, start with the general software requirements document template.

The PRD template

Copy this and fill it in from top to bottom.

1. Summary
   One paragraph: what this is, for whom, and the outcome it should produce.

2. Background and problem
   What is happening today, who is affected, what it costs them.
   Evidence: where you learned this (interviews, support tickets, data).

3. Goals and non-goals
   Goals: 2-4 outcomes, each with a way to measure it.
   Non-goals: things people might expect that are explicitly out.

4. Users and use cases
   Who uses it, in what situation, to get what done.

5. Requirements
   ID | Requirement | Priority (must/should/could) | Acceptance criterion

6. User flows and screens
   Links to flows, wireframes or designs. One line each on what they show.

7. Success metrics
   Metric | Today | Target | How and when it is measured

8. Assumptions, risks and open questions
   What you believe but have not confirmed, what could go wrong,
   what still needs an answer and who owns it.

9. Timeline and dependencies
   Milestones, other teams or systems you rely on, decisions needed by date X.

10. Out of scope / later
    Ideas that came up and were deliberately postponed.

How to fill in each section

Summary, background and problem

Write the summary last, even though it comes first. It should be readable on its own by someone who will read nothing else.

The background is where most PRDs go wrong: they describe the solution instead of the problem. State what people do now, where it hurts, and how you know. If your only evidence is an opinion, say so; it tells the reader how much weight to give the rest.

Goals and non-goals

A goal is an outcome, not a feature. "Customers can export invoices" is a feature. "Finance closes the month without asking engineering for exports" is an outcome you can check.

Non-goals are the cheapest way to prevent scope creep. Write down the things a reasonable person might assume are included, and mark them out. This section often produces the most useful conversation of the whole document.

Requirements

Give every requirement an ID, so people can refer to it in tickets, tests and change requests. Mark a priority using one scheme and stick to it, for example must, should and could.

Each requirement needs an acceptance criterion: a statement someone can test without asking you what you meant. "The page loads quickly" cannot be tested. "The report page shows results for a 10,000-row export within a time the team agrees on" can, once the number is agreed.

Keep requirements about behaviour and outcomes. Leave technology choices out unless they are a real constraint, such as an existing system you must integrate with.

Success metrics

Pick few metrics, and write down the baseline. A target without a starting point cannot be judged. State when you will look: a metric measured at launch tells you something different from one measured three months later.

If you cannot measure something yet, say how you will start measuring, instead of inventing a number.

Assumptions, risks and open questions

Every project rests on beliefs nobody has checked. List them. Give each open question an owner and a date, otherwise it will still be open when the team is halfway through the build.

A short filled-in example

This example is invented and kept to a few lines per section to show the level of detail, not the full length.

Summary
A self-service portal where wholesale customers check order status and
download invoices, so the support team stops answering these by email.

Problem
Support handles a large share of its tickets on order status and invoice
copies (to be confirmed from the ticket export). Customers wait for a reply
for a simple lookup.

Goals
G1. Customers find order status without contacting support.
G2. Customers download invoices themselves.
Non-goals: placing orders, payments, changing delivery addresses.

Requirements
REQ-1 | Customer can sign in with their company email | Must |
        A verified user reaches the order list after sign-in.
REQ-2 | Order list shows status and expected delivery date | Must |
        Every order from the last 12 months is listed with its status.
REQ-3 | Invoice PDF download per order | Should |
        The file matches the invoice stored in the accounting system.

Open questions
Q1. Which system is the source of truth for status? Owner: operations lead.
    Needed by: before the design is signed off.

Common mistakes

• Describing the solution as the problem. If the background already says "we need a dashboard", nobody has looked at the need.
• No non-goals. Everyone silently adds their own expectations.
• Requirements nobody can test. Words like fast, easy, intuitive and modern need a number or a behaviour next to them.
• A PRD written once and never updated. When a decision changes, change the document; otherwise it becomes a record of what people believed in week one.
• Too long. If it is more than a few pages for a small project, split detail into linked documents.

Making the PRD faster to produce

The slow part is rarely typing. It is collecting what people already said in decks, emails, call transcripts and notes, and turning it into a consistent structure. Discovery Phase AI reads such source files and drafts the stages of a document like this one for you to review and edit. You can see what the finished output looks like in the example report, built from an invented project. For the discovery steps that come before a PRD, there is also a discovery phase checklist.

Whatever tool you use, the template above is the part that matters. A clear structure, short sections and testable requirements will carry a PRD further than any amount of polish.