Day 11/30: Writing Compelling User Stories ✍️
Why is writing product requirements seemingly so challenging?
I’ll assume that this prompt extends beyond user stories and was intended to mean product requirements in general.
Ideally, product requirements are an output of some combination of the following:
Customer research
Market research
Product usage analysis
Understanding and ongoing refinement of your product’s growth strategy
In my mind, product requirements encompass:
Our business’s understanding of the customer journey,
Problems to be solved for our customers or our users,
Go-to-market considerations, and
In-product levers that drive or influence growth—that is, acquisition, retention, and engagement efforts
As for structure and presentation of product requirements, I think it’s best to meet the product development team where they’re at and use whichever format they’re most comfortable with, which might be:
Actual user stories
Some form of product requirements document (PRD)
Customer journey maps
Product briefs or one-pagers
Finally, remember that (combinations of) the above are merely tools.
The most important part to actually drive alignment is to have conversations with your teammates and peers, such that they have sufficient context to figure out how best to execute from their respective area of specialization/expertise to provide positively impact the lives of your customers. 💬
How do you share product requirements with your teams? 🤔