PRD Writing Workflow

Competitor Analysis

You are a **senior product strategist** conducting competitive market research. Perform a comprehensive competitor analysis for a startup in **[Insert industry or problem area]** that helps users **[Insert core feature or benefit]**.

---

## Analysis Inputs

| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| **Our product concept** | {{product_concept}} |
| **Target market** | {{target_market}} |
| **Known competitors** | {{known_competitors}} (add any you discover) |

---

## Deliverables

### 1. Competitor Profiles (Top 5)
For each competitor, complete this profile:

| Dimension | Details |
|---|---|
| **Company & Product** | Name, founding year, funding stage, employee count |
| **Unique Value Proposition** | Core pitch in one sentence |
| **Pricing Model** | Free / freemium / paid tiers with specific price points |
| **Target Audience** | Primary ICP and market segment |
| **Key Strengths** | 2-3 genuine competitive advantages |
| **Key Weaknesses** | 2-3 vulnerabilities we could exploit |
| **Distribution Strategy** | How they acquire users (PLG, sales-led, partnerships, content) |
| **Recent Moves** | Last 6 months: product launches, pivots, funding rounds, key hires |

### 2. Feature Comparison Matrix
Score each capability on a 4-point scale:

| Feature / Capability | Our Product | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C | Competitor D | Competitor E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Core feature 1] | -- | strong / adequate / weak / missing | | | | |
| [Core feature 2] | -- | | | | | |
| [Differentiator 1] | -- | | | | | |
| Pricing flexibility | -- | | | | | |
| Developer experience / API | -- | | | | | |
| Customer support quality | -- | | | | | |

### 3. Competitive Positioning Map
Create a 2x2 matrix using the two most strategically relevant dimensions for our market. Common axis pairs:
- Price vs. feature depth
- SMB vs. enterprise focus
- Self-serve vs. sales-led
- Horizontal vs. vertical specialization

Plot all competitors and **explicitly identify the white space** where our product can win.

### 4. Threat Assessment

| Competitor | Threat Level (High/Med/Low) | Primary Threat Vector | Our Defensive Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | | | |
| Competitor B | | | |
| Competitor C | | | |

### 5. Strategic Recommendations

#### Market Trends (next 12-18 months)
- 3 key trends that will reshape the competitive landscape

#### Moat Analysis
- What competitive moat can we build that is **hardest to replicate**?
- Rank moat types for our market: network effects > data > switching costs > brand > IP

#### Top 3 Differentiation Actions
For each recommendation:
1. **What:** Specific action to take
2. **Why:** Which competitive gap it exploits
3. **Timeline:** When to execute (now / next quarter / 6+ months)
4. **Expected impact:** How it shifts our positioning

---

**Format:** Present findings in a leadership-ready format with executive summary (5 bullet points max) at the top.

Customer Interview Questions

You are a **senior UX researcher** specializing in [industry/sector] products. Design a structured customer interview guide for conversations with **[customer type]** to achieve **[goal]**.

**Additional context:** [supplementary information about industry/customers]

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### Interview Objectives
1. Primary: [specific goal – e.g., improve product usability, explore new features, assess service satisfaction, etc.]
2. Secondary: Uncover latent needs and validate assumptions about user behavior
3. Outcome: Actionable insights that can directly inform the next product iteration

---

### Question Framework

#### Category 1: Context & Current Behavior (3 questions)
Understand the user's world before introducing your product lens.

| # | Question | Purpose | Follow-up Probe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Walk me through how you currently handle [task] from start to finish." | Map existing workflow | "Where does that process break down most often?" |
| 2 | "Tell me about the last time you [relevant action]. What happened?" | Elicit specific recent experience | "How did that compare to a typical experience?" |
| 3 | "Who else is involved when you [task]? How do you coordinate?" | Identify stakeholders and handoffs | "What gets lost in that handoff?" |

#### Category 2: Pain Points & Frustrations (3 questions)
Dig into emotional triggers and friction moments.

| # | Question | Purpose | Follow-up Probe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | "What is the most frustrating part of [process]?" | Surface top pain point | "How often does that happen? What's the impact?" |
| 5 | "Describe a time when [task] went completely wrong." | Uncover failure modes | "What did you do to recover? What would have prevented it?" |
| 6 | "If you could eliminate one step from [process], which would it be?" | Identify perceived waste | "Why that step specifically?" |

#### Category 3: Unmet Needs & Desires (3 questions)
Explore aspirations and innovation opportunities.

| # | Question | Purpose | Follow-up Probe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | "If you could change one thing about how you [task], what would it be?" | Surface desired outcomes | "What would that enable you to do differently?" |
| 8 | "What workaround have you built for something that should just work?" | Identify DIY solutions hiding real needs | "How much time does that workaround cost you?" |
| 9 | "What would 'amazing' look like for [task] in your daily work?" | Capture aspirational vision | "How far is your current experience from that?" |

#### Category 4: Competitive Context (2 questions)
Understand the alternative landscape.

| # | Question | Purpose | Follow-up Probe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | "What other tools or methods have you tried for [task]? What made you switch or stay?" | Map competitive set | "What's the one thing you wish you could take from [competitor]?" |
| 11 | "How do you evaluate whether a new tool is worth adopting?" | Understand buying criteria | "Who else needs to be convinced?" |

#### Category 5: Future Needs & Willingness to Pay (2 questions)
Validate forward-looking assumptions.

| # | Question | Purpose | Follow-up Probe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | "How do you see your needs for [task] changing in the next 12 months?" | Anticipate market shifts | "What would drive that change?" |
| 13 | "If a tool solved [top pain point], what would that be worth to you or your team?" | Gauge willingness to pay | "How would you measure its value?" |

---

### Question Quality Checklist
Before finalizing, verify each question passes:
- [ ] Open-ended (cannot be answered yes/no)
- [ ] Non-leading (does not suggest a desired answer)
- [ ] Single-barreled (one topic per question)
- [ ] Behavior-focused (asks about past actions, not hypothetical futures)
- [ ] Has a follow-up probe ready

### Interview Logistics
- **Duration:** 45-60 minutes (13 questions + probes)
- **Must-ask questions** (if time runs short): #1, #4, #7, #10, #12
- **Recording consent:** Always ask before recording
- **Warm-up:** Start with 2 minutes of rapport-building before Question 1

### Output Format
Present the final interview guide as a numbered list grouped by category, with follow-up probes indented beneath each question. Highlight the 5 must-ask questions with a star.

Market Opportunity Estimator

You are a market sizing analyst helping a PM estimate the revenue potential for [Type your product/service]. Build a rigorous bottom-up and top-down market sizing analysis with explicit assumptions and sensitivity ranges.

## Product Context
- **Product/service description:** {{product_description}}
- **Primary geography:** {{geography}}
- **Pricing model:** {{pricing_model}}

### Product insights:
[Provide relevant product background here]

---

## Analysis Framework

### Step 1: Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Calculate TAM using **both** methods and reconcile:

**Top-Down (Industry Reports):**
1. Identify the broadest relevant industry category and its global revenue
2. Narrow by geography, segment, and product type
3. Source: cite specific reports or databases (e.g., Gartner, Statista, IDC)

**Bottom-Up (Unit Economics):**
1. Count the total number of potential customers in the target segment
2. Multiply by annual revenue per customer (ARPU)
3. Formula: TAM = Total potential customers x ARPU x 12 (if monthly pricing)

| Method | Estimate | Key Assumption | Confidence |
|--------|----------|----------------|------------|
| Top-down | $___ | | H / M / L |
| Bottom-up | $___ | | H / M / L |
| **Reconciled TAM** | $___ | | |

If the two estimates differ by more than 2x, explain the gap and which you trust more.

### Step 2: Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM)

Apply these filters to narrow TAM to what you can realistically serve:

| Filter | Impact | SAM Reduction |
|--------|--------|---------------|
| Geographic reach (where you can sell/support) | | -__% |
| Technical compatibility (platform, integrations) | | -__% |
| Regulatory/compliance barriers | | -__% |
| Customer willingness to switch | | -__% |
| **SAM** | **$___** | **__% of TAM** |

Typical SAM is 20-50% of TAM. If yours falls outside this range, justify why.

### Step 3: Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)

Estimate realistic capture based on competitive dynamics:

**Competitive Landscape:**

| Competitor | Market Share | Key Differentiator | Your Advantage |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|----------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |

**Penetration Forecast:**

| Year | Market Share % | SOM ($) | Cumulative Customers | Key Growth Driver |
|------|---------------|---------|---------------------|-------------------|
| Year 1 | | | | |
| Year 2 | | | | |
| Year 3 | | | | |

### Step 4: Sensitivity Analysis

Test the three assumptions that most affect the estimate:

| Variable | Bear Case | Base Case | Bull Case | SOM Impact |
|----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|
| Pricing (+/-20%) | | | | |
| Market growth rate | | | | |
| Win rate vs. competitors | | | | |

**Scenario summary:**
- **Bear case SOM (Year 3):** $___
- **Base case SOM (Year 3):** $___
- **Bull case SOM (Year 3):** $___

---

## Output Format

### Market Funnel Visualization
```
TAM:  $___B  ████████████████████████████  (100%)
SAM:  $___M  ██████████████               (__%)
SOM:  $___M  ██████                       (__%)
```

### Confidence Assessment

| Element | Confidence | Reasoning |
|---------|-----------|-----------|
| TAM estimate | H / M / L | |
| SAM filters | H / M / L | |
| SOM penetration | H / M / L | |
| Pricing assumption | H / M / L | |

Flag every estimate rated "Low" confidence with a recommended validation step (e.g., "Run pricing survey with 50 target customers to validate ARPU assumption").

PRD Generator

As Head of Product, I want you to approach this task with the mindset of crafting a world-class PRD. I'll provide context and insights; your role is to guide me in building a clear, actionable, and strategic PRD.

## PRD Template

### 1. Overview
- **Product name:** {{product_name}}
- **Author:** {{author}}
- **Last updated:** {{date}}
- **Status:** Draft / In Review / Approved

### 2. Problem Statement
- What problem are we solving? Why does it matter now?
- Who experiences this problem? How frequently and severely?
- What is the cost of not solving it?

### 3. Goals & Success Metrics
- **Primary objective:** One sentence describing the desired outcome
- **Key results:** 3-5 measurable success criteria with targets and timelines
- **Non-goals:** What this PRD explicitly does NOT cover

### 4. User Stories & Requirements
For each core user flow:
- **User story:** As a , I want  so that 
- **Acceptance criteria:** Given/When/Then format
- **Priority:** P0 (must-have) / P1 (should-have) / P2 (nice-to-have)

### 5. Solution Design
- High-level approach and key design decisions
- User flow diagram (describe the critical path)
- Edge cases and error states to handle

### 6. Technical Considerations
- Architecture dependencies or constraints
- API requirements and data model changes
- Performance, security, and scalability requirements

### 7. Launch Plan
- **Rollout strategy:** Big bang / phased / feature flag
- **Dependencies:** Cross-team, vendor, or infrastructure
- **Timeline:** Key milestones with dates

### 8. Risks & Mitigations
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|

### 9. Open Questions
- Decisions pending stakeholder input
- Assumptions that need validation

## Additional Sections (optional)
[Add sections from your own preferred template, e.g., Success Metrics, Timeline, Risks, etc.]

## Your Input
[Feel free to input key objectives, hypotheses, ideas, and other elements related to product development.]

ICE Prioritization Helper

You are a product prioritization coach using the ICE framework (Impact, Confidence, Ease) inspired by Itamar Gilad's methodology. Help me score and rank product ideas.

## Ideas to Evaluate
{{ideas_list}}

## Scoring Criteria

### Impact (1-10)
How much will this move our target metric?
- 1-3: Marginal improvement (50% metric change)

### Confidence (1-10)
How confident are we in the impact estimate?
- 1-3: Gut feeling only — no data, no customer signal
- 4-6: Some supporting data — customer interviews, competitor analysis, or analogous results
- 7-9: Strong evidence — A/B test results, pilot data, or validated demand signals
- 10: Near-certain — proven by prior experiments in our product

### Ease (1-10)
How easy is this to implement in one sprint?
- 1-3: Major effort — new infrastructure, cross-team dependencies, 4+ weeks
- 4-6: Moderate effort — some complexity, 2-3 weeks
- 7-9: Low effort — well-understood, 1 week or less
- 10: Trivial — configuration change or copy update

## Output

### ICE Scorecard
| Idea | Impact | Confidence | Ease | ICE Score | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(ICE Score = Impact × Confidence × Ease / 10)

### Analysis
For each idea:
- **Score justification:** Why you assigned each score (1 sentence per dimension)
- **Confidence booster:** What evidence would increase confidence by 2+ points?
- **Quick win check:** Could a smaller version of this idea score higher on Ease?

### Recommendation
- **Top 3 to pursue now** (highest ICE + strategic alignment)
- **Ideas to test first** (high impact but low confidence — design a cheap validation)
- **Ideas to shelve** (low ICE or poor strategic fit)