Why should requirements be finalized before creating a PRD?

Why should requirements be finalized before creating a PRD?

Requirements should be clarified enough to create a useful PRD, but they do not need to be permanently fixed. In practice, “finalized” means establishing an agreed baseline for the current scope, while documenting uncertainties and a process for making later changes.

Resolve the decisions that shape the product

Before asking AI to draft a PRD, identify the intended users, primary problem, initial features, and major exclusions. For a wedding app, decide whether the first release covers task coordination, RSVPs, or both.

Clarify rules with broad consequences. Whether guests require accounts affects their journey, invitation design, privacy expectations, and implementation effort.

If these choices remain unstated, AI may produce a polished document built on assumptions that stakeholders never approved.

Use drafting to expose remaining gaps

Creating a PRD can itself reveal missing details. A feature description may raise questions about duplicate invitations, event cancellation, or collaborator removal.

Record those questions visibly instead of filling every gap with an invented answer. Review them with the people responsible for product decisions and update the draft.

The document and requirements can develop together. The goal is a reliable shared understanding, not a rigid sequence in which discussion stops before writing begins.

Maintain a changeable, traceable baseline

Once the team agrees on the initial version, mark its scope and unresolved items clearly. Connect features to acceptance criteria so engineers and reviewers know what implementation should accomplish.

When evidence changes a requirement, assess the impact on designs, data, APIs, tests, and delivery plans. Update the PRD and related documents together. A documented revision is healthier than silently changing the product in scattered conversations.