Product Requirements Gathering Guide

By addressing these foundational questions at the very beginning of the product lifecycle, we establish a clear and aligned vision that guides decision-making and minimizes costly pivots later. Defining the product’s scope, intended impact, and success criteria ensures that teams work toward meaningful, measurable outcomes tied to organizational goals. Capturing early user insights helps validate needs and shape development priorities, reducing rework and misalignment. Additionally, clarifying technical feasibility, dependencies, and constraints upfront enables more realistic roadmap planning and mitigates risks. This structured approach fosters collaboration, accountability, and efficiency, ensuring that product development remains focused, adaptable, and ultimately delivers value.

1. Product Scope Overview

• Goal:

  • What is the overarching goal of this product functionality/feature? 

  • How are they tied to organizational and team level OKRs?

  • What specific problem or opportunity does this software address?

• Impact:

  • What specific outcomes or benefits are expected for the business and users?

  • Has there been any similar/partial work completed within Sage in the past?

• Timeline:

  • Is there a soft or hard deadline for Minimum Value Product (MVP)?

• Product Owner:

  • Who is the ultimate decision maker for approving requirements?

• Internal Stakeholders: 

  • Who are the primary stakeholders involved within Sage?

2. Initial User Stories

• Target Audience:

  • Who will use the product/feature, and what are their key characteristics?

  • What are the specific needs, preferences, and expectations of each user group?

  • Who is involved in the review process of high-level user stories and AC?

• User Story List:

  • What kinds of methods are used to gather requirements, e.g., interview, surveys, workshops, observations, etc. ?

    • Who is responsible for synthesizing the gathered data?

  •  Provide a prioritized list of high-level user stories:

    • As a [user type], I want [functionality] so that [benefit].

• Acceptance Criteria:

  • Define the conditions under which each user story will be considered complete.

3. Product Backlog and Scope Management

• Minimum Viable Product (MVP):

  • Identify the subset of features or user stories that define the MVP.

• Out of Scope (for MVP)

  • Specify features or functionality explicitly excluded from the MVP.

4. Functional Requirements (High-Level)

• Functionalities or features:

  • What problems or needs is the functionality/feature intended to address? 

  • What is the official name of the above?

  • What are the metrics that would be used to gauge effectiveness of this functionality?

• Constraints and/or dependencies:

  • What are the inputs, outputs, and processing requirements of each function?

  • Which derived use cases or scenarios need to be considered to support the core user stories?

  • What is a typical workflow? Does it handle ≥ x% of use cases?

5. Non-Functional Requirements (High-Level)

• Performance Expectations:
  What are the speed, scalability, and reliability expectations? E.g., response time, uptime, scalability goals.

• Security and Compliance Needs:
  What level of data protection is required? Are there compliance needs? E.g., HIPAA, GDPR compliance, encryption, data privacy.

• Usability and Maintainability:

  • What design or accessibility standards must the software meet? E.g., Documentation, ADA compliance, UX principles.

  • What are the acceptable levels of user training and support?

  • How will users provide feedback or report issues?

    • What mechanisms will be in place for users to give feedback or seek support?

    • How will user feedback be collected and incorporated into future iterations?

6. Technical Feasibility - Engineering/PO

• Proposed Technology Stack:
  Identify potential tools, frameworks, and platforms.

• Integration and Compatibility:
  Highlight existing systems to integrate with or compatibility requirements. 

• Risks and Unknowns:
  Document cost estimation, potential blockers or areas requiring further investigation.

7. Collaboration and Iteration

• Team Involvement:
  Identify key contributors (roles) and responsibilities in R/DACI.

• Feedback Loops:
  Define how feedback will be incorporated from stakeholders or early adopters.

• Regular Checkpoints:
  Schedule for reviews and iterative adjustments.

8. Quality Assurance and Testing - Engineering/PO

• Understanding Requirements:

  • Determine the overarching goals of the testing process, such as identifying defects, ensuring compliance with requirements, and validating user expectations.

  • What are the target platforms and environments for testing?

• Testing Techniques and Plans:

  • Determine specific testing techniques (e.g., black-box testing, white-box testing, exploratory testing, etc.).

  • Identify the testing tools (e.g., performance measurement, test automation, etc. ) and resources (e.g., testing environments, test data, etc.).

  • What are the criteria for measuring test coverage and effectiveness?

9. Open Questions and Assumptions

• Assumptions:

  •  List assumptions driving the initial planning.

• Constraints & Risks:

  • List limitations imposed by the chosen technology stack, infrastructure, or development tools.

  • Identify budget or resource constraints that need to be considered.

  • Identify potential risks that could impact product development.

• Open Questions:

  •  Identify areas needing clarification or input.

Ref.: 

• SDLC: Requirements Gathering

• Blog: Why Minimum Requirements Matter

• Blog: Repeatable process for delivering quality software @ Sage

• Product Design/Design Playbook: Before Starting Checklist

• Product Design/Design Playbook: Stakeholder role in Software Development Lifecycle