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Product Spec Template

Why Do We Need This?​

There are two reasons why we require new projects to create a specification. First, to ensure that every project member has the same vision for the project. Second, it motivates project teams to create a plan about how to tackle the project without the complication of the actual code. Describe the “what” of the project, not the “how”!

Note: Here’s the Google Doc template if you want it

Product Specification Requirements​

  • A high-level summary of the product you are building, keep it concise
  • The problem (can be a problem that has already been solved) that your product is solving
    • What is the problem?
    • Why do we have this problem?
    • How can we help?
    • Who will benefit? Who are your product’s intended users?
  • Team Breakdown
    • Who is the project manager or point of contact?
    • How will the team be divided by role (for ex. front-end/back-end/design)?
    • Who will be on each subteam/subgroup?
  • Your Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
    • List features that your product should have. Be specific!
      • What are the main deliverables of your product you want to accomplish first at minimum? (MVP deliverables, high priority)
      • What are some deliverables you hope to accomplish after your MVP? (Post-MVP deliverables, lower priority)
      • Describe these features in detail on how they will behave, how you expect them to be used.
    • Design (Technical and Non-Technical)
      • What is the high-level architecture of your product? Provide a diagram of your tech stack and how they connect.
      • If your product has a front-end user interface:
        • Use Figma or any wireframing tool to visualize your product. Include a publicly viewable link to your wireframe.
        • View of product (Refer to the wireframe)
          • How does each page or view of the product look?
          • How does the user navigate between views?
        • For each feature’s user journey,
          • What is the user journey like for each feature?
          • How does the product look when activating the feature? During usage? After usage?
      • If your product will require a back-end to provide services to the front-end:
        • What will the front-end be requesting from the backend?
        • Will it need to interact with a database?
      • If your product requires a database for information storage:
        • What type of database is it? Relational database? NoSQL?
        • What is your database schema/structure? How would you interact with it?
      • If your product requires other services, how will they connect to your product and provide support for its’ features?
      • REGARDLESS of your stack, how do you plan to test your code at each level of the stack? What potential testing frameworks/suites can your team use to show that each feature is functional and bug-free?
      • (If applicable) REGARDLESS of your stack, how will your team prioritizing privacy, security, and accessibility in your project?
  • General timeline
    • High-level timeline of the development process
    • When do you anticipate finishing your product? Each section of features?
    • Take into account how long your learning phase will be, because that takes up a significant portion of time.