Product Requirements Document: what should be stated and highlighted.

Every business strives to become the next Airbnb or Uber, but not everyone will succeed. If you want to create a product that will sell, when creating it, take into account the needs of your audience, even if they are not the most obvious. A detailed document of requirements for the mobile app will be a great help in this.

What is the Product Requirements Document (PRD)?

The product requirements document defines the value and purpose of the app for you and the development team. You can use this document to explain to developers whom the product is intended for and what benefits it brings to the end-user. PRD guides product development by providing an understanding of the purpose behind the app. This document describes the business logic of the product, contains all the technical characteristics, and helps the development team transform an early concept into a full-featured application.

What should be in the PRD?

Business needs

Any mobile app is created to solve certain tasks. Business needs in PDR describe how the application will meet the needs of the company and its users.

When creating business requirements, you should consider the following points:

• For what purposes do you need the app? What do you want to achieve with it?
• What current problem (s) will it solve? How will it improve current business processes?
• What should the app do? What are its main functions and what functions might be needed?
• Are there any branding and design guidelines that developers should follow?

Mobile app goals

The requirements document must contain information about what the product should do and its main goals. For the first version of the mobile app, it is better to focus on one problem that your target audience is facing, so you can better work out the most important point and determine success indicators.

User access level

The PRD must include a description of the access level and rights for different user groups (for example, administrator, guest, registered user). You should clearly understand how each group of users will interact with the app, which will encourage the guest to register.

The Business Analyst, Designer, Developer, and Product Manager must participate in creating detailed sets of user rights. This way you will get the most effective set of rights for each user group.

How do you see your mobile app?

The description of your product vision allows you to determine the best path to the final goal of the mobile app. You should tell us what problem (and how) it solves, whom it is intended for, and how it differs from the closest competitors ' apps. The more detailed you describe what the app should be, the more likely you are to get exactly what you want.

Make a list of functions

Selecting features for the app requires a complete understanding of what the finished product should look like and what tasks it will solve. Of course, each app may have its own special functions, but there are also a number of standard ones, many of which you will definitely need:

• registration and login;
• navigation;
• image gallery;
• integration into social networks;
• catalog;
• shopping cart, deferred / favorite items;
• payment for goods/services;
• push notifications;
• hardware access to the device;
• calendar integration;
• booking system, etc.

Understanding how the user will use the app and navigate through it is critical to determining the necessary features.

Monetization strategy

There are several monetization strategies. the choice of the appropriate one depends on the type of app, your target audience, and even the mobile operating system you plan to use.

Advertising. You earn revenue by selling ad space and displaying ads in the app.

Pay-per-download is the oldest and simplest app monetization model. Users pay for the app before downloading it and get access to the full functionality of the product after installation.

In-app purchases. This strategy allows users to purchase various items in the app. It is most effective for mobile games where you can buy extra lives, special equipment, in-game currency, etc.

Freemium. With this model, users download the app for free, but certain features become available only after payment.

Subscription. This model is similar to freemium, but the free version of the app restricts access to content rather than features.

Technical parameters

The technical characteristics of a mobile application determine the system and functional requirements for which the product can work stably, without failures or damage to functionality.

The following parameters must be specified in the mobile app requirements document:

• What platforms will the app be available on (iOS, Android, or Windows)?
• What version of the operating system needs to support it?
• What are your service needs? Do you need further support from specialists?
• Do you have documentation of the APIs/services?
• Do you have Apple, Google, or other developer accounts?
• What are your current services, servers, and databases?

Ideally, the app should be running on both iOS and Android, but this is not always possible. Limited budget, lack of resources and time lead to the need to first choose one platform and later create an application for the second.

When deciding which platform is best for your app, it is important to keep in mind the purpose and purpose of the product, as well as determine what the end goal is and what audience is important for your business model.

Android accounts for about two-thirds of the global market and gets more app downloads than iOS. At the same time, iOS users show higher engagement and spend more money on in-app and in-app purchases.

The monetization strategy also plays a significant role in choosing the platform. From the point of view of revenue, it is more profitable to develop an app for iOS. Despite having fewer users and fewer downloads, the app store generates much more revenue.

Each platform has its own advantages, so it is important to carefully study the issue to understand which OS is more suitable for your purposes.

Maintenance and modernization

You are mistaken if you think that work on the app ends after its official release. In addition to development, you need to plan a budget for maintaining the application, fixing errors, and further development. The PRD should include a long-term product vision that takes into account user requirements, possible improvements, and new app features for future updates.

Assumptions and limitations

Assumptions are usually related to predictions of user behavior and interaction with the app. It is also important to include assumptions about the technical and business aspects of the product in this section. For example, what percentage of users will see enough value in the product to use it regularly, whether the application will run on the latest OS, and when the product will be ready for release.

As for restrictions, it is important to specify the framework within which the team should work — budget, time, and application scope.

Preparing to upload to stores

The requirements document must contain the information required to download the app in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Developers know the requirements of stores and will be able to tell you exactly what you need, what nuances should be taken into account in the development process to make it easier to submit an application.

If the developers are going to download the app, don't forget to provide them with the exact name of the company/legal entity, contact information, and copyright information, and determine the category of the app, whether it will be paid or free.

A short and complete description of the app, as well as correctly selected keywords, will help you promote the product.

In Conclusion

When writing a PRD, remember that the main goal of the document is to provide the foundation for a successful product. In order for the development team to create the product of your dreams, make sure that you specify all the technical and business requirements, restrictions, and assumptions. However, be prepared for questions that may arise during development. This is unavoidable even with the most carefully composed PRD.