As a product manager, you will need to be familiar with BRD and PRD documents. Product requirement documents and business requirement documents are two different types of documentation that you will need to learn and master. These documents may appear similar, but their purposes, goals, and functions differ. If you are wondering what the differences between BRD and PRD are, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we will explore what BRD and PRD are and examine the differences between the two documents.

Ready?

Let’s begin!

TL; DR

  • BRD is a formal report that highlights business goals, objectives, processes, and needs.
  • A product requirement document (PRD) is a framework defining product purpose, features, functionality, and behavior.
  • The main differences between BRD and PRD are their intended use, scope, audience, objectives, and goals.
  • The most effective way to create BRD and PRD is to get support from an AI assistant and manage the process with the AI ​​assistant.
  • If you are looking for an AI assistant to support you in your wide range of documentation including BRD and PRD, TextCortex is the solution for you.

What is a Business Requirement Document (BRD)?

A business requirements document (BRD) is a formal report that highlights business goals, objectives, and needs. Business requirement documents show what needs to be done for your business to be successful, serve as a guide for your employees, and indicate the issues that need to be prioritized. Thanks to BRD, all your business employees can be on the same page and focus on the goal by working collaboratively.

Business Requirement Document Use Cases

To better understand business requirement documents, it is necessary to discover the purposes for which they are created. When creating a BRD, you want to include:

  • Planning Project
  • Setting Strategic Directions
  • Creating Applications
  • Defining Business Needs
  • Solving Business Problems
  • Defining Market Needs
  • Set Timelines

How to Create a BRD?

To create a business requirement document, the first thing you need to do is list your business’s objectives and goals. The most effective way to write a business requirement document is to use BRD templates. If you want to generate a customized BRD template for your business, you can use AI assistants like TextCortex that can integrate with your internal knowledge base.

What is a Product Requirement Document (PRD)?

A product requirement document (PRD) is a framework defining product purpose, features, functionality, and behavior. It serves as a guide for business, technical, and development teams and team members working on the same product. Thanks to its purpose and functions, PRD enables team members to work collaboratively on a product.

Product Requirement Document Use Cases

A product requirement document is created to ensure that a product is developed correctly, meets release criteria, and has features. Here are some use cases for a PRD:

  • Product Features
  • Product Needs
  • Define User Stories
  • Meet Business Goals
  • Collaboration
  • Error Handling
  • Define Product Functions

How to Create a PRD?

To create a product requirement document (PRD), the first thing you need to do is gather as much information as possible about your product. Then, you can create a basic PRD using a Product Requirement Document Template. If you want your PRD to be compatible with your product and customized for it, you can use AI tools. For example, TextCortex AI can generate customized PRD templates for your product and turn your articles into actionable PRD topics.

BRD vs. PRD: What’s the Difference?

Business requirement document (BRD) and product requirement document (PRD) cover similar themes but have different purposes, uses, target audiences and scopes. If you are curious about the differences between BRD and PRD, let's explore together!

Purpose

The first and biggest difference between a business requirements document (BRD) and a product requirements document (PRD) is their purpose. A product requirements document highlights the functionality and features of a product and focuses on the needs of the product. BRDs aim to find solutions to how a business or product will deliver results.

Business requirements documents focus on the needs of a business and highlight how it should be set up. Business requirements documents aim to define what a business aims for and wants to achieve.

Audience

One of the differences between product requirement documents and business requirement documents is the audience they address and guide. The audience of product requirement documents includes:

  • Development Teams
  • Engineers
  • Developers
  • Technicians
  • Product Managers

On the other hand, the audience of business requirement documents include:

  • Business Stakeholders
  • Marketing Teams
  • Clients
  • High/Middle Management
  • Analysts

Scope

A product requirement document focuses on product-specific features, capabilities, and guides. PRD is all about product details such as its functions, technical requirements, edge cases, user stories, and release criteria. For example, PRDs can highlight the requirements, features, and design of an application’s login screen. 

Business requirement documents focus on all business processes, highlight the business’s goals and objectives, and serve as a guide for all employees. For example, BRDs’ goals include increasing average customer satisfaction or increasing ROI.

Objectives

A product requirement document provides clear, actionable guidelines for employees to build a product properly. A PRD outlines what a product is and what it should include, so all teams can track the product’s progress and work collaboratively. A business requirement document informs all stakeholders and parties about the business, its goals, and its needs. BRDs are guides that aim to inform all participants, from employees to investors.

TextCortex AI: Create Professional Documentations

If you are looking for an AI assistant to support you in writing a wide range of documentation including product requirement documents and business requirement documents, then TextCortex is designed for you. With TextCortex, you can generate templates for any document type, draft articles with just a few words, enhance your existing articles, analyze your internal data, and turn them into documents.

TextCortex offers AI agents that allow its users to automate any monotonous task. Using TextCortex AI agents, you can perform autonomous data analysis to create PRD and BRD, organize customer feedback, and create task automation that will ease the workload of your employees. TextCortex AI is ideal not only for automating your tasks but also for increasing the productivity of your employees. Check out the results from one of our case studies:

  • Reduction of internal expertise search time from minutes to seconds
  • 10-12% more efficient proposal creation
  • Employee confidence in working with AI improved from 8/10 to 10/10
  • Employee enthusiasm toward AI increased from 25% to 67%
  • 94% of employees report that AI improves their work quality

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between PRD and BRD?

PRD focuses on detailed specifications and requirements of a product or feature, a BRD provides a detailed view of the business objectives, goals, processes, and workflows.

What are BRDs and PRDs?

BRD stands for business requirement documents and focuses on the objectives, goals, processes, and workflows of a business. PRD stands for product requirement document and focuses on features, release criteria, specifications, and requirements of a product. BRD and PRD are not just a document; they are the compass for your product & business journey.

Who creates PRDs?

Product managers are usually responsible for creating product requirement documents. This is because product managers have detailed knowledge about the product and know the desired form of the product.