Product brief template
A product brief defines the goals, attributes and overall direction for a product initiative (could be a new feature or expanding to a new use case). They provide rationale, context, objectives, data, and well-defined needs so that cross-functional teams can engage in conversation and make high-quality decisions about what precisely to build.
Although the terms are often used interchangeably, a product brief is not the same thing as a product requirements document (PRDs) or product spec, which are more for communicating acceptance criteria for well defined user stories and epics at a detail level.
When to use
Briefs are useful for setting direction after the market research & discovery phases, and prior to design and development phases.
Common pitfalls
Teams can get overwhelmed by the feeling of not having a ‘single source of truth’ for the product roadmap. When using briefs along with other tools, it’s helpful to communicate to the team what purpose each artifact is serving in your specific case.
For instance, the roadmap may show different initiatives in priority order and change often to adapt to changing horizons, while a product brief goes into detail about one specific initiative and is reliatively stable. Jira issues (or other tools) should then track work happening on a story level that tie back to an initiative.
Outcome
There is a single, stable description of the intent of a feature or initiative to help anchor teams and stakeholders around.
Method
- After you’ve synthesized research and discovery inputs, choose a framework that works for your needs.
- Make a copy of the document for your draft.