Product requirements: write a PRD the team can build from
Product requirements describe the experience a release must provide and the conditions under which it must work. A useful product requirements document, or PRD, lets design, engineering and testing resolve the same user problem without independently inventing its rules.
State the problem and the release boundary
Imagine a team-planning product whose administrators copy tasks from a spreadsheet by hand. The proposed release imports a CSV file into one existing project. Start with who does this work, what slows them down and what a successful import would leave in the product.
Atlassian's PRD guidance includes goals, assumptions, user stories, design and out-of-scope work. Use those as prompts for shared decisions. The document's length should follow what the team needs to understand, rather than a fixed page target.
For our hypothetical release, include task names and due dates. Exclude attachments, cross-project imports and automatic assignment. Link the broader feature definition so the reason for those boundaries remains available.
Turn broad labels into observable behavior
"Import CSV" leaves several choices open. Specify who may import, which columns are supported, how rows are validated and when tasks are created. Decide what happens to the file and whether users can undo the result.
In this example, a project administrator selects a file, maps its columns and reviews a preview. Invalid rows show their row number and the field to correct. Import remains unavailable until every row is valid, and confirmation creates the tasks in the selected project. A preview never changes project data.
Resolve partial results and repeated actions
Consider a connection failure after confirmation. The administrator needs to know whether tasks were created before trying again. Engineering must decide how to make the operation safe, while the PRD specifies the visible guarantee: retrying the same submitted import must not create a second set of tasks.
The example uses an all-or-nothing import. If it fails, no tasks from that submission appear. If a different product permits partial imports, its requirements need a way to identify completed rows and retry only the remainder. Leaving this choice implicit can create duplicate or missing work.
| Situation | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Valid file, administrator confirms | Tasks appear once in the selected project |
| A row has an invalid due date | Preview identifies the row; no tasks are created |
| User cancels the preview | Project remains unchanged |
| Confirmation is retried after a lost response | The original outcome is recovered without duplicate tasks |
Make quality constraints specific enough to discuss
List the file sizes, encodings, date formats and devices the release will support. If speed matters, define the measurement scenario and an agreed target with engineering. A statement such as "the import is fast" cannot tell the team which result is acceptable.
Specify access to uploaded data and how long the product retains the file. Record unresolved security or operational decisions with the person responsible for answering them. A plausible default should not quietly become a requirement.
Keep the PRD connected to implementation and learning
Walk through the scenarios with the team, attach the current designs and link the implementation work. When a decision changes, update the affected behavior and acceptance examples together so the old rule does not survive in a test or mockup.
Define how the release will be evaluated beyond passing its checks. For this import, observe whether intended administrators complete the task and still need manual re-entry. Use the product launch checklist to connect the agreed requirements with release readiness and the first cohort review.
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