Let me paint you a picture. I’m a product manager at Ketto, which you might know is India’s biggest crowdfunding platform. And like any product manager out there, I’ve been trying to optimize our processes, streamline everything, and, well, just make magic happen. For two years, I followed the traditional PRD (Product Requirements Document) method — no questions asked. I mean, it was what everyone did, right? So, of course, I thought it was the best way to communicate product vision and requirements. But as Ketto grew and our platform turned into this feature-packed beast, I realized I was drowning in a ridiculous amount of documentation.
I was stuck. And then, I found the holy grail — checklist PRDs. That changed everything. Literally. Here’s my bumpy, chaotic journey from PRD hell to checklist nirvana, and how it turned our product development process at Ketto upside down — in the best possible way.
You know how it starts: good intentions. We had this PRD template.
It was massive and detailed. It covered every single thing under the sun—from user research to analytics, technical specs, and marketing plans. It looked bulletproof on paper.
In reality? It is a total nightmare. Every time I sat down to draft one, I felt like I was writing a full-on novel. Seriously, our “Add to Cart” feature PRD — a feature allowing donors to support multiple causes in one transaction — ended up as a 20-page monster. 20 pages! I spent three very late nights finishing that beast, and by the time it was done, I was too exhausted to even care about the impact this feature was supposed to have. And the worst part? Half of it was outdated before we even started building. Talk about a buzzkill.
So, there I was, drowning in paperwork, when someone mentioned the checklist PRD method. My first thought? A checklist? Really? It seemed almost… too simple. How could a checklist replace the elaborate, meticulously crafted PRD template I was used to? But hey, at that point, I was willing to try anything to save myself from PRD madness.
I decided to give it a whirl with our next feature — a personalized cause recommendation engine. And you know what? It was a total game-changer. Instead of spending days buried under documentation, I threw together a checklist for the planning phase:
Done. It took me less than an hour. Seriously. And the best part? When I shared it with the team, we had the most engaging, productive kickoff meeting I’d seen in ages. Everyone immediately understood the concept and dove right in with ideas. No one was bogged down by paragraphs of text. It was like breathing fresh air.
As we moved through each phase — kickoff, solution review, launch readiness, and impact review — I just added more checklist items as needed. It evolved with us. It stayed relevant. It worked.
Making the switch to checklist PRDs wasn’t just about saving time (though, believe me, that’s been a huge bonus). It completely transformed how we worked as a team. Here are a few mind-blowing changes I didn’t even see coming: