PM artifacts and their purposes
Product managers rely on various artifacts to communicate plans, capture requirements, and track progress. Each artifact serves specific purposes and audiences throughout the product development lifecycle:
- Product requirement documents (PRDs) provide comprehensive specifications for major features or initiatives. They capture the problem being solved, success metrics, detailed requirements, and technical considerations. PRDs serve as the source of truth for what's being built and why.
- User story maps offer a visual representation of the user journey and help teams understand how individual features fit into the broader experience. These two-dimensional maps show major user activities across the top, with increasing levels of detail below.
- Story maps excel at revealing gaps in the user experience and helping teams plan releases that deliver coherent value rather than disconnected features. They're particularly useful during discovery and planning phases.
Other essential artifacts include release notes that communicate changes to users, sprint plans that organize short-term work, competitive analyses that inform strategy, and design specifications that detail the user experience.
Each artifact has its own cadence and level of detail. The key is choosing the right artifact for your communication need rather than trying to make one document serve all purposes. This prevents information overload and ensures each audience gets exactly what they need.
