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Product Management Rule #22: Write It Down

Blog Author: Sarah Gaeta

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Nothing is worse than a product manager who keeps everything in their head and shares nothing materially with others.

Your job is to document, document, document, and then go back and clarify, clarify, clarify. Your PRDs (product requirements documents) and MRDs (market requirements documents) should be the go-to information sources for everyone working on the product or supporting the product in some way. You need to educate, persuade, coach, and manage internal and external perceptions, assumptions, and people. To do this, have every pertinent piece of information documented. You can measure your success by the frequency people quote or refer to your documents. Give it to them—they need it.

To be the product leader—which a good product manager is—you need a record. Without it, others will try to mold the product into their view, which may not align well with what the market needs and the opportunity you’re chasing.

Here are a few steps to creating a written record for your product:

  1. Determine who your audiences are and what they need to learn from the document(s).
  2. Determine in what time frame these audiences need to be served. For example, maybe engineering is the most urgent audience. If so, then it may be best to begin with the PRD sections for engineering and then move onto other areas of the PRD or the MRD.
  3. Invite reviews and inputs. You are most successful when others feel ownership and accomplishment for your document. You want and need to be recognized as being the primary contributor, not the scribe. However, allowing others to contribute creates a community of ownership and belief; and that can serve the process very well later when tough decisions and prioritizations need to be made.
  4. Post it where anyone in the company can get to it easily (assuming there’s no information that requires a restricted distribution list). Many CEOs and VPs I know troll the intranet/corporate network looking for “interesting” items to read. Wouldn’t it be great if your CEO commented to your VP that she’d read the PRD or MRD? The fact that a CEO takes the time to do that reflects well on you. It also provides visibility for upper management, which is good. A lack of visibility usually raises doubt and uncertainty in people’s minds.
  5. Revise and update as needed, and in a timely fashion. If a major area of the product was put on hold, then update the document ASAP. Don’t let it get too out of date or the credibility of the record goes down with the accuracy. This can be a slippery, fast slope down, and then you find you’re not the product manager anymore.

This doesn’t mean you have to be the lone author.

Create a documentation team and coordinate the activities. When a good team is brought together to author a PRD or MRD, the outcome can be astoundingly thorough, clear, and complete. Set your sights high and tap the best and most appropriate talent to participate.

Product Management Rule #22 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management

About The Author

Sarah Gaeta

Customer-focused tech executive, CEO, and SaaS leader driving growth, turnarounds, and high-performing teams across software and cloud businesses.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Documentation is critical because it creates a shared source of truth for product decisions, priorities, and strategy. Without written records like PRDs and MRDs, product direction becomes subjective and fragmented. Clear documentation aligns teams, reduces rework, prevents misinterpretation, and allows product managers to lead with evidence instead of opinion.
When product managers rely on memory instead of documentation, information becomes inconsistent and inaccessible. This leads to confusion, misalignment, and others reshaping the product based on personal assumptions rather than market needs. Over time, the product manager loses authority, credibility, and control of the product’s direction and outcomes.
PRDs and MRDs give engineering, marketing, sales, and leadership a clear, consistent understanding of the product’s goals, requirements, and market context. When teams reference the same documents, discussions become faster, decisions are easier to justify, and disagreements shift from opinion-based debates to evidence-based collaboration around documented intent.
Product documentation should be updated whenever priorities, scope, or timelines materially change. Outdated documents quickly lose credibility and stop being used. Regular, timely updates reinforce trust in the product manager’s leadership and ensure teams continue to rely on the documentation as an accurate guide for decisions and execution.
Written documentation creates visibility, accountability, and alignment across the organization. When executives, engineers, and stakeholders quote or reference your documents, it signals authority and clarity of thought. Writing things down allows product managers to shape perception, guide decisions at scale, and lead proactively instead of reacting to chaos.

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