PRD Standards

Purpose

Canonical reference for PRD quality — shared by both authoring and review workflows. Ensures the author and reviewer apply the same standards.

Reference Selection

Relationship to Core Frameworks

4 Risks framework, Confidence Meter (0-10), and OST hierarchy are foundational concepts. This skill operationalizes them in the PRD context — templates, thresholds, and format.

PRD Structure

A discovery-driven PRD follows a standard structure with additive extensions. See references/prd-template.md for the authoritative template.

Core sections (standard PRD):

• Overview (one-line summary, background)
• User Stories
• Functional Requirements (with EARS-format ACs)
• Non-Functional Requirements (including accessibility)
• Success Criteria (tied to Product Outcomes)
• Technical Considerations

Discovery extensions preserve the decisions carried by core sections while adding:

• Hypothesis & validation references in Overview
• 4 Risks confidence per user story
• Unvalidated assumptions section in Technical Considerations

User Story Standards

Each user story follows the persona-grounded format with 4 Risks assessment. See references/user-story-guide.md for the full guide.

Key rules:

• Reference a specific persona from docs/product/personas/, not generic "user"
• Every story has a 4 Risks confidence table with evidence
• "Validated enough" is judged by cost x risk x reversibility, not a fixed threshold
• Remaining risks are documented explicitly, not hidden

Acceptance Criteria Standards

All functional requirements use EARS-format acceptance criteria. See references/acceptance-criteria.md for patterns and examples.

Key rules:

• Use When (event-driven), While (state-driven), or If-Then (conditional) patterns
• Each AC is testable with a clear pass/fail
• User-facing requirements specify each applicable state; an excluded standard state gets a reason only when omission would leave behavior ambiguous
• Accessibility ACs included for UI features