PRD · AI-codegen PRD · Strategy · OKR · Business Plan
Pick one, fill it, and lead with the decision — not the structure.
Five fill-in skeletons, each copyable as Markdown. The moment a feature is LLM-powered, switch to the AI-codegen PRD. Non-Goals and open questions are mandatory, not optional.
Template · 10-section PRD
PRD — [Feature name]
Kevin Yien (Square), popularized via Lenny Rachitsky — not a "ChatPRD standard"
Above the fold
The three moves that carry a good template.
Pick ONE, fill it, lead with the decision.
Don't lead with the structure. A template earns its place by making the decision requested obvious on the first line — everything else supports it.
Non-Goals are mandatory, not optional.
Non-Goals must name excluded segments AND the cheaper alternative you considered NOT building. The open-questions list, tagged with confidence, is mandatory too.
The moment it's LLM-powered, switch templates.
Move to the AI-codegen PRD: specify WHAT, never HOW. For LLM features the golden-prompt set + eval rubric IS the spec.
Template 1 · the workhorse
PRD — 10-section.
- 1TL;DR + decision requested
- 2Problem (+ evidence)
- 3Goals — business & user
- 4Non-Goals — what we're explicitly NOT building
- 5User Stories / JTBD
- 6UX (flows, mocks)
- 7Narrative (press-release / customer story)
- 8Success Metrics (primary + guardrails)
- 9Technical considerations + open questions tagged with confidence
- 10Milestones (phases, not hard dates)
- +Dependencies — incl. cross-team instrumentation cost (the analytics/events another team must ship for you to measure success)
§4 Non-Goals + the open-questions list are mandatory. Non-Goals must name excluded segments (e.g. single-player/single-seat users are NOT the target) and the cheaper alternative you considered NOT building (e.g. improve existing email before building an in-app center).
For regulated/sensitive features, spec regulated-content handling — masking, audit logging, sensitive-data-on-shared-screen rules. Multi-context calibration: B2C leans habit-formation hooks; early-stage PRDs over-scope by default — and don't over-build v1 to match Slack/Linear's mature surface.
Scoping discipline · Milestones §10
Dollarize Cost of Delay as $/month and recurring LTV impact (not a one-time number) so the bet ranks on the right magnitude — then ship the narrowest slice first (one IdP before a SAML + OIDC + SCIM + directory-sync sprawl). A narrow slice that ships beats a broad slice that slips.
Template 2 · when it's LLM-powered
PRD for AI codegen — 6-section.
ChatPRD format. Specify WHAT, never HOW: describe behavior, inputs/outputs, constraints, and testable acceptance criteria; let the coding agent choose implementation.
- 1Overview / goal
- 2User stories
- 3Functional requirements (observable behavior)
- 4Non-functional constraints (latency, cost, safety)
- 5Acceptance criteria
- 6Out-of-scope
Attach the golden-prompt set + eval rubric (→ §AI-Native). For LLM features, that IS the spec.
Template 3 · direction + execution in one doc
Strategy doc — "Strategy Blocks."
- 1Winning-aspiration headline
- 2~3 pillars + explicit non-goals
- 3~3 HMW questions
- 44-dim bet rubric (incl. uniqueness / defensibility)
- 55-phase timeline
Frame each bet as a hypothesis — "We believe [action] will result in [outcome], as measured by [metric]" — with an inline DHM assessment and an explicit "What we're NOT doing (and why)" block. Keep small-s execution and big-S direction in one doc; cite as a named framework, not settled canon.
Template 4 · the fill-in
OKR — objective, key results, guardrails.
- OObjective — qualitative, inspiring
- KRKR1–3, each with baseline → target + confidence
- GGuardrail-metrics slot — what must not regress
- IKey Initiatives = the bets, NOT the results
The most common OKR error is listing initiatives as key results. Key Initiatives are the bets; Key Results are the outcomes those bets aim to move.
Template 5 · when the financial spine matters
Product Business Plan — the Aumayr spine.
Reach for it on B2B-industrial / P&L-owning PM work. The full fill-in skeleton lives in PRO — this is the spine to copy and expand.
- 1Market
- 2Positioning
- 3Strategy
- 4Financials (contribution margin, break-even point)
- 5Roadmap
- 6KPIs
Full fill-in skeleton lives in PRO MODULES → Strategy & Roadmap . Reach for it where the financial spine matters.