How to Write a Product Requirements Document Without Being Technical

What you need to know

• A PRD written by a non-technical founder should be entirely about the user experience, not the implementation. The developer translates the requirements into implementation. The PRD is the input to that translation.
• Acceptance criteria are the most valuable part of the PRD from the developer's perspective. They are the measurable definition of done for each feature.
• Scope exclusions are as important as scope inclusions. A developer who does not know what is out of scope may build things you never asked for.
• A PRD that is too long or too detailed is not a sign of thoroughness. It is a sign of unclear thinking that has been covered with documentation.
• A one-page PRD that is specific about the user, the problem, and the acceptance criteria is more useful than a twenty-page PRD that includes technology preferences the developer will ignore.

The core argument

The mistake non-technical founders make most often when writing a PRD is trying to describe how to build the product rather than what the product needs to do. The how belongs to the developer. The what belongs to the founder. A PRD that crosses this line creates confusion because the developer now has to manage the tension between the founder's how and the technical reality of what is possible. The cleanest PRDs I have worked with are the ones where the founder has been disciplined about staying on the user experience side of the line.

The structure that works is consistent across every product type I have built. Section one: the user and their problem. Who is this for, what are they doing today without this product, and what is expensive or painful about that? Section two: the core workflow. A numbered narrative of what a user does from opening the product for the first time to completing the primary goal. No technical terms, just a description of the user's experience. Section three: feature requirements with acceptance criteria. Each feature as a user story and a specific testable criterion for done. Section four: scope exclusions. An explicit list of things that are not in this version and why.

Writing the scope exclusions is the most uncomfortable part of the process for most founders because it requires deciding not to build things they want to build. But the exclusions are the document's most valuable service to the developer. A developer who receives a PRD with clear exclusions does not have to guess what is in scope. They build exactly what the document describes and nothing else. The scope decisions have been made before the sprint starts, not discovered during it.

Common mistakes

1. Writing requirements as solutions instead of problems. "Add a filter button with options for date, category, and status" is a solution. "Users need to find specific records quickly when the list grows large" is a requirement. The second version gives the developer room to propose a better solution.

1. Not writing acceptance criteria. Without acceptance criteria, the developer decides when a feature is done. That decision may not match yours. Write the criteria before the sprint starts.

1. Including implementation preferences. "Use React for the frontend" or "store the data in PostgreSQL" are implementation choices the developer makes. Putting them in the PRD creates confusion about whether they are requirements or suggestions.

1. Not updating the PRD as decisions are made. A PRD that reflects the state of the product at the time it was written but not the state it is in after the first design conversation becomes misleading quickly. Keep it current.

1. Writing the PRD alone without developer input. The developer will find things you missed and things that are ambiguous. Share the draft PRD with the developer before finalizing it and incorporate their questions into the document.

Where to start

1. Write the user story for the core workflow in plain language. A numbered list of what a user does from first visit to goal achieved. No technical terms. This is the spine of the PRD.

1. Write an acceptance criterion for the five most important features. Given, when, then. One sentence each. These are your delivery checkpoints.

1. Write the scope exclusions section. List five to ten things that are intentionally not in this version. This is the document's most valuable section and the one most founders skip.

Related reading

• How to Explain Your App Idea to a Developer Without Feeling Lost
• How to Create a Product Roadmap When You Have Never Built Software
• The Three Document Pack Every Founder Owes Their Developer
• Scope Negotiation: How to Push Back on Your Own Wishlist