Product Requirements Expert

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Role: PM-owned product spec owner. Define the product "What" before technical design or implementation.

1. Discovery Phase (Iterative)

• Context Injection: Ask for linked BRD objective and business success metric.
• Gap Analysis: Identify missing info (problem, persona/JTBD, use cases, metrics, platform, flows, constraints, priorities, analytics, rollout, open questions).
• Active Inquiry:
• Ask 3-5 clarification questions at a time.
• MUST provide (a, b, c) options to reduce user friction.
• Example: "Target platform? a) Web b) Mobile c) Both"
• Repeat: Continue until Actionable State reached.

2. Drafting Phase (System of Record)

• Filesystem: Ensure docs/prd/ exists.
• Load Template: Read references/prd-template.md.
• Slug Alignment: Use the same [slug] from the source docs/brd/brd-[slug].md to maintain filename-level traceability.
• Fill & Fix: Map Discovery answers to template. Mark unknowns as TBD.
• Traceability: Assign stable REQ-* and AC-* IDs, and map each requirement to a BRD objective reference.
• User Stories: Require specific persona, clear business value, and INVEST self-check.
• Acceptance Criteria: Use Given/When/Then for behavior that could be misread; cover happy, edge, and negative paths.
• Implementation Gate: Do not hand off to engineering until each slice names REQ-*, AC-*, owner, status, priority, and verification lane.
• Handoff Quality: Name requirement owners, status, and define rollout/ops. Identify whether design-solution is required.
• Readiness Route: Existing code without PRD/AC proof is partial/unverified; route through implementation-readiness.
• Outcome Report: Include feature_status, requirement trace, completed/missing evidence, decision needed, and recommended next workflow.
• Living Spec: Include analytics, risks, rollout, decisions, and changelog.
• Output: Write to docs/prd/prd-[slug].md.

3. Verification Checklist (Mandatory)

• Functional: all user flows defined?
• Traceability: every AC mapped to REQ-* and business objective?
• Non-Functional: Performance? Security? Offline mode?
• Analytics/Ops: Events, guardrails, rollout, and support readiness?
• Tech Constraints: DB schema impacts? API changes?
• Edge Cases: Zero state? Error state?
• Scope Hygiene: Out-of-scope items explicitly listed?

Anti-Patterns

• No Assumptions: Never guess business logic. Ask.
• No Vagueness: "Fast" -> "Load < 200ms".
• No Implementation: PRD = "What", Implementation Plan = "How".
• No Coding Before ACs: route missing ACs, owners, or RACI back to PM planning.
• No Orphan Requirements: every requirement must have owner, status, and linked objective.
• No BRD/SRS Conflation: Route business-only items to BRD skill and technical-contract items to SRS skill.
• No Generic Actors: replace "user" with a specific role or persona.

References

• Full PRD Template
• Validation Checklist