Matthew Joseph Martin

Spot on! A PRD should grow with the project. From using Lean Canvas in the early days of startups to managing digital transformations and product growth in Fortune 500 companies, I've found that a PRD must be dynamic. Think of the initial speclet as an elevator pitch—just enough to capture the essence and spark interest. Then, let it evolve to ensure clarity and alignment. And don’t skip the post-launch review—those insights are invaluable for continuous improvement and innovation.

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This PRD template is the culmination of my 8+ years in PM & brings everything together seamlessly 🧨 In these 8 years, one thing I’ve learned is that for a PM, alignment between tech and business is everything. And that’s why I created this PRD template. This template covers every crucial aspect of the PRD process, ensuring that no detail is left behind. From defining product goals to diving deep into design phases, it allows you to fully customise and build around your specific needs. It’s been a critical for me in driving alignment across teams and delivering successful products. If you’re looking to bridge the gap between tech and business, this might just be the missing piece you need! 💡 P.S. — Tired of not getting shortlists? Is your CV the right fit for breaking into a PM role? How should you go about build a portfolio? My program helps you ace all these situations and much more! Check out the link in comments to apply for the program! 🤩

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Great visual of the evolution of a PRD throughout the Product development lifecycle

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Hi everyone, I often get asked what should be on the todo/checklist of a great Chief Product Officer. Here is what I just came up with. Helpful? What is missing? CPO Todo list 💪 [ ] Deep empathy for the customers developed and internalized [ ] Intimate knowledge of existing product(s) [ ] Product Vision articulated and evangelized [ ] Product Strategy articulated and shared [ ] Immediate/Next cycle Objectives and Initiatives communicated and shared [ ] Competitive/Market analysis conducted, internalized, and shared [ ] Customer needs/behavioral segmentation understood and shared [ ] Product portfolio investment framework outlined [ ] Product operations/execution process defined, including touch points with cross-functional colleagues [ ] Prioritization process and criteria agreed upon [ ] Voice of the Customer process established [ ] Voice of the GTM process established [ ] Competitive intelligence/market research process established [ ] Product Engagement/health metrics and goals defined and measured [ ] Product impact understood and tied to business KPIs [ ] Budget secured and ROI of Product initiatives articulated [ ] Customer engagement program established [ ] Detailed technical Roadmap articulated and shared within R&D/PDE [ ] Internal business Roadmap articulated and shared with GTM colleagues [ ] Internal High-level/Exec Roadmap articulated and shared with Executive Stakeholders [ ] External roadmap articulated and shared confidentially with VIP customers and partners [ ] External facing roadmap articulated and shared with broader customer community [ ] Strong and inspiring product leadership and culture established [ ] Product org structure and domain ownership defined [ ] Product career ladder and job descriptions clearly defined [ ] Fair and radically candid performance management process defined [ ] Team assessment conducted, gaps identified [ ] Growth and mentorship program established [ ] Hiring plan outlined [ ] Strong relationships and alignment with key stakeholders built and nurtured [ ] Your team's great work continuously evangelized on the global stage [ ] The best CPO in the world to become ☺️ 🚀

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I'm always so delighted by folk's reactions to ChatPRD. This breakdown by Aakash Gupta takes a critical eye to whether or not ChatPRD is useful, how it compares to other OOTB solutions, and reiterates that it's writing style is where it really shines. Loving all the comments highlighting some of the common themes we hear from other PMs using the product, good and bad: Pros + writing style + speed + customization options + helping think around corners Questions ? is my data secure ? shouldn't I be... thinking ? how does it know the context ? are PRDs even useful I think many of the doubts are philosophical (and will shift over time!) vs. unsurmountable issues in the product experience. I'm excited to keep building so folks can adapt and adopt more AI tools when building awesome products.

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You don't write your PRD once. You write it over time. If the purpose of a PRD is clarity, then it's important for it to reflect the current state of the team's thinking. Here's the 6 stages of evolution I recommend: 1 — Team Kickoff Often called a speclet, at this stage the idea is 'just enough information' for the team to explore it further. It might even be just a title and a few lines. The idea is: you've identified business metrics to move, and you have 80%+ confidence of the user problem direction you'll solve. You don't know the exact problem or solution, but you're describing your best hunch. It's an exercise in product sense. Then, with your designer and tech lead, you'll explore further. 2 — Planning Review This is when the PRD expands into a 1-pager. You've started to explore the problem space with your design and engineering partners. It's now ready for review with execs—your skip level, those VPs that care a lot about the roadmap, maybe even the CEO. This new document ends planning reflecting the summary of your learning during the process. 3 — XFN Kick Off Once you're ready to take on the solution space, it's time to bring all the stakeholders in: sales, customer support, marketing... This is where you update the PRD for all of the input needed. What you need from legal, from privacy, from compliance, from QA, and everyone else. It has a compelling problem space, initial data, and serves as a canvas to get input before going full on in the solution exploration. 4 — Solution Review The next step for the PRD is generally the most stressful product review. This is the one, if it's a big feature, you might even present to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Many times, this will even evolve into a slide deck, or a Notion document that's ready for presentation, or a 6-page PRFAQ if you work at Amazon. The idea is, you put your stake in the ground on the results of the solution space exploration so you can get feedback. 5 — Launch Readiness Once you've gotten all that feedback and completed your exploration of the solution space, it's time to get the document ready for engineering. Your tech lead has been in on the whole process, but now you need to create a concrete document of edge cases, metrics, and flows. Then, the engineers building it can stress the final edge cases only an engineer can find. 6 — Impact Review Many people make the mistake of ending the PRD there. But it's worth going back to the PRD and adding a link to your feature results writeup. And, if you roll back the feature or something, adding a note of it. You want people who find the PRD to be able to trace back what happened after to complete the build-test-learn loop. — Ready to go further with examples and specifics? Check out the deep dive: https://lnkd.in/ef5Yde54

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i think Dan Koe is a product genius, and here's why i recently joined the bootcamp for his new product Kortex it's a note app like Notion, Coda, Anytype, etc. / no next-gen features, but the product dev method is unique how Dan cracked the product launch code? here's a quick breakdown of his launch and why it's the best product approach i've seen 1/ Dan has a huge media audience understanding their needs, he created a note app for writers and content creators = his core audience, his personal pain point and solution 2/ the product isn't publicly released yet, likely due to quality and scalability concerns, so… 3/ first, Dan launched Kortex University, a long-term educational program high price + some UX issues led to likely low conversions (my guess) 4/ next came Kortex Bootcamp for $350 lots of educational value + early access for a year great deal, teaching writing, threads, newsletters, and Kortex usage 5/ bootcamp was limited to 500 people i hesitated for a few days, and within 10 hours of paying, it was sold out why is this approach genius? → simple math: 500 × $350 = $175'000 after taxes, educational materials, Dan's time, and part-time team support for 1.5 months, it's around $120'000 → Dan essentially secured a $120'000 pre-seed round without losing equity or wasting resources on investors, pitching, and bureaucracy → Kortex now has 500 early adopters, who are likely to stay due to the educational value attached to the product → plus, they act as beta testers, reporting bugs and suggesting improvements applause for the best real customer development i've seen → this also creates a great media story and social proof Dan knows his stuff, and high-quality content ensures rave reviews (like mine) → it's a perfect tool for his sales funnel since he has other educational products that fit well into the content creator training system >>> the essence? i like to repeat 'want a startup? build media!' Dan's simple customer development approach changes product distribution, secures development resources, creates an engaged feedback loop, and builds a base for upselling other products all mixed with education, real value, and practice the coolest part? he can do this 3-5 times before the public release not bad to get $500K+ in investments without losing equity + 2500 users + tons of product feedback + help people build their personal brands + making them loyal fans he's hitting all targets with one shot! take note; such cases are rare and remember, audience is everything with it, you can validate hypotheses, test products, get early adopters, secure risk-free investments, and improve lives simultaneously /// sometimes i write about digital products and case studies, balancing virtual and real life, decentralization, AI, and technology in general follow me… or don't your choice just keep control of your life and never stop growing personally

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PRD templates don't work. In all my jobs but this one I foolishly tried to push a PRD template with my team. But PMs will naturally adapt their approach to effectively communicate the opportunity and requirements. There was always an annoying rule-breaker who proceeded to deviate away from the template, and that rule-breaker was me. Instead of rigid templates, I now focus on requirements for the requirements. Is the problem statement specific? What input metric are we moving, and what are we controlling for? Have we made explicit the tradeoffs of potential solutions? Are we clear about our assumptions? What's the minimum we can build to validate our hypotheses? What risks and dependencies might we face? What are your termination criteria? #productmanagement

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Pendo introduced Product Operations (ProductOps) as a counterpart to DevOps, MarketingOps, SalesOps, and other operational roles. The key role of ProductOps is to analyze and interpret data from product usage platforms and turn it into actionable insights for Product Management. In many cases, I believe the ProductOps stack should also integrate CRM data or contribute to it. Why? By making sure Sales, CSM, and Product Management are aligned, organizations can gain a more consistent perspective on the market and product performance. This helps drive better decision-making across departments and fosters collaboration. ProductOps isn't just about data. It's about empowering cross-functional teams to make informed decisions faster. Highly aligned companies, according to Forrester, grow 19% faster and are 15% percent more profitable - that is founded in good decision-making processes. By integrating CRM and usage data, teams can not only see the "what" but also the "why" behind customer behavior - allowing for a better understanding of the product's impact. What is your take? Are you using ProductOps in your organization, or are you seeing the benefit of this?

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PM friend: "Ugh, my team is still working on a feature they said they'll deliver weeks ago". Many reasons could create delays: Scope Issue: The feature is larger or more complex than initially estimated. Technical Unknowns: The team might have encountered unexpected technical challenges. The most common reason by far is: Process Inefficiencies. Usually siloed workflows and communication issues. Teams work on multiple features at once, progressing in all but completing NONE —a common execution trap. What could PMs do about process inefficiencies?

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The past 2 weeks, I've been testing out different ways to draft a PRD. By far, the fastest is ChatPRD: (This is not a sponsored post) OUR OPTIONS When we PMs walk into a company, we have 1 of 2 situations: 1. We're handed this PRD template the company has 2. It's a free-for-all with no PRD template     If there's a template, it takes roughly an hour and a half to get a first draft of a feature you have begun aligned on the problem for. If there's no template, I found it takes even longer. Around 2 hours of work. ENTER LLMS It's incredibly difficult to actually find those time blocks without working late nights. So, my latest practice had been to use a tool like GPT-4o with a mega-prompt. And this works pretty well. But there's so much editing you have to do. If you're really good, though, you can get a draft out in something like 45 minutes. So I was genuinely surprised when I tried ChatPRD. The reason is: its PRD's don't need that much editing!. It does a really good job of sounding like a PM. That's always the major challenges with LLMs, but ChatPRD is built around it. It makes sense, if you think about it. LLMs are made for generalized use cases. With a GPT atop the LLM, 3x CPO Claire Vo has exported her brain into the product. ENTER THE COLLAB With ChatPRD, I've found you can actually draft your PRD in ~30 minutes. But to make sure everyone can get to that level, I reached out to the team behind ChatPRD to write the ultimate guide. I tested all the different ways to use it, and also worked with the awesome Alisa Haman, Claire's partner in crime, to add my PRD template to ChatPRD. So, it's just one click and a few prompts to get to an Aakash-inspired draft. Check out the full guide here: https://lnkd.in/e6nsDWKt LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK I think it's worth a try for any PM or product leader facing a blank page or template and ready to jump into editing faster. 𝗔𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁: it gives you an idea of what an LLM would say—so you can do better. 𝗔𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁: it could cut your time to a working draft by 75%. Share your honest opinion in the comments.

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Ever wonder if you can use new or updated Jakarta EE feature now? With upcoming Jakarta EE 11, the "umbrella JARs" are transparently replaced with default API dependencies. What that means is whether you use Core, Web or Full Platform profiles, you can exclude, upgrade or add new APIs to your heart's content. This brings unprecedented flexibility to your Jakarta EE applications, without the baggage of depending on implementations.

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PRD to be or not to be? 🤔 I recently joined a heated discussion on whether PRDs should exist, who should be responsible for product details, and when they should be addressed. So, what's the correct answer? It depends. 🔹 Small Team, Dedicated Product: In small teams, engineers often have direct contact with customers and a deep understanding of the product's goals. Minimal documentation is needed, and engineers can lead the planning process while the PM represents the voice of the customer. 🔹 Large Software Organization, Multiple Teams: For big organizations, alignment between multiple teams is essential. PRDs become crucial for defining the overall solution and aligning team efforts. The product leader must drive this cross-team alignment to ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. 🔹 Software Agency, Limited Customer Interaction: In agencies, PRDs are non-negotiable. When you're committing to budgets and timelines upfront, a detailed PRD covering milestones, technical architecture, and risks is essential. The PM owns this process, with engineers providing critical input and this work needs to happen upfront. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Adapting your approach based on your team and product context can minimize wasted effort and maximize clarity. 📈 💬 Interested in sharing how your team tackles PRDs? Let’s connect and learn from each other’s experiences! #ProductManagement #SoftwareDevelopment #PRD #TeamAlignment #Agile

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Product development without a clear vision is the same as hitting a pinata blindfolded. What's crazy is that most Product Managers have never created, or even seen a real product vision. Companies filled with people working on things that may or may not be related to each other. Just random teams doing random shit. And then the stakeholders wonder why they aren't "moving the needle". Don't be one of them. Tomorrow my free newsletter will help 2k+ Product Managers learn how to create a clear product vision. Hit the link in the comments below to join us.

Thanks Devkakis community for suggesting many tools for Public Feature Wishlist and Voting board. I ultimately settled with Canny.io after testing a few platorms. I found this one is paling lengkap one with many useful features. You can now: 1. Submit feature requests for "JOBS by Developer Kaki" 2. Upvote features you find useful 3. Report bugs 4. View status of FR in public roadmap (Planned, In Progress, Completed) I have inserted the feedbacks gathered in the past 5 days on the platform. Visit it in the link in the comments section 👇 #BuildInPublic

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Big announcement - PRD Generator is ready for a closed Beta! 🚀 From 0 to First Web App - A PM’s Journey It's been a while since the last update, been crazy busy with kid 3.0 + work, but I just had 2h to myself this morning, the first time in a long time. Maybe I should have just chilled with a coffee on the balcony with a book, but that project has constantly been the top of "things to do the second you have a moment to yourself list" :) I'm super excited about how this tool is shaping up as I want it to solve the main problem will all these PRD template / GPTs: they are generic. A PRD should be tailored to you as as PM/Entrepreneur, the company etc So - it's finally ready for a closed beta and I'm LOOKING FOR 3-4 PMs working in small startups to give them access in exchange for feedback! Why closed beta? Because I didn't implement analytics yet and I can't release something without being able to measure it (and also it still looks really bad ahah)

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I have been in many situations where "the leadership and XFN" debated on a product plan for weeks -- what to build, how many HC needed, and etc... then an engineer started to actually build something and enabled the team to iterate forward quickly. Now, I think GenAI is good enough that many product ideas can be prototyped by product managers directly without an engineering HC :) At Turing, we found that PM can communicate product ideas much more concretely by building prototypes; and prototype is a much more effective central artifact to focus the team's energy towards shippable products in very fast iterations. Thanks Char for sharing his experience at Turing on this experiment!

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Launching a new product successfully requires more than just a detailed Product Requirements Document (PRD)—it demands clear and effective communication to the entire team.     A well-crafted PRD sets the foundation, but it's the seamless collaboration and shared understanding of that document that turn plans into reality.     Ensuring everyone is on the same page is key to hitting those milestones and achieving product success. 📈     #productlaunch #PRD #teamcollaboration #effectivecommunication #productmanagement

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