
Ask HN: How to Write a Product Spec? - r_singh
I&#x27;ve heard Michael Seibel say this multiple times. Write down your product spec when making an MVP and when iterating on it with a team too.
Can anyone here help with some examples please? Thanks!
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CyberFonic
The product specs I write are for clients and thus commercial in confidence.
But the following observations might help:

Basically write two versions, one from a user perspective, i.e. what problem
does it address and how does it solve it; the other from an implementation
perspective, i.e. diagramming the major blocks and how they communicate with
one another. Ideally, all of these being referenced back to the user
perspective.

Finally, I find it useful to write a marketing plan, one that identifies the
target demographic, their attributes and a SWOT / competitive products /
markets analysis.

Sometimes I feel that I am a hybrid of a technical writer and devil's advocate
to my clients.

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muzani
Business model canvas is the best I've seen for this. It's designed to be
really easy to iterate, and identify what parts link to other parts.

If you're writing for engineers, it's still similar - what is the problem and
how does this solve it?

I've done a few startups, and so far we've never really needed a technical
product spec to hit project market fit. Partly because it's usually far better
than the competition, e.g. a native app with lots of features vs a static
competitor app built in phonegap.

Partly because it's intuitive but hard to put into words. We had a health
recipe app. One of the most used features was a BMI calculator. I couldn't
explain why we needed it, but it was half an hour to build (with unit tests!)
and a chat with one customer said she had our app and the competitor's app
because the competitor app had a BMI calculator. It would literally take less
time to build it than write a spec for it.

The other questionable feature was a dodgy in app chat. It wasn't live, more
like a single thread message board. Customers loved it and it provided most of
our feedback. We ended up branching some WhatsApp groups from it instead of
building a full thing. Part of the reason is that people use a healthy recipe
app to commit to losing weight, and they wanted some company. Especially those
who had unsupportive husbands and family. Or those who didn't know where to
start.

So to reinforce, you have an idea of what the problem is, and what it looks
like when it's solved. You should also have a feedback funnel early on to see
how you're doing, though this more face to face with customers rather than an
engineering thing.

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simplecomplex
Write a spec... What sage startup advice by YC lol. Who would have thought.

Seriously though check out Shape Up: basecamp.com/shapeup

It’s a whole book on how 37signals makes the sausage. Goes over how they spec
out a feature, decide on what should be built, etc. They’re a team so not
everything applies to individuals but there’s a lot of useful ideas. They give
concrete examples and case studies. Including specific examples of specs.

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quickthrower2
Write a spec! Not sure if that’s frowned or loved these days, as one might be
accused of so called “waterfall” when they should be “agile”. Anyway I love
specs for UI, UX, sequence and sometimes for technical design but if a few
bulletpoints in Jira does it I like that too.

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topicseed
Curious to see if solo developers write up their product specs or just go with
the flow?

