The Five Questions That Make a PRD Useful for an AI Coding Agent

Before you ask an AI coding agent to build your product, answer these five questions.

Not because the agent needs a perfect document. Because vague input creates vague decisions, and vague decisions create rework.

1. Who is the user?

Name one person or role. Avoid “everyone,” “small businesses,” or “people who need productivity.”

Try this instead:

A solo recruiter who tracks interviews for fewer than 30 open roles.

Specific users make scope easier. A recruiter needs a workflow for candidates and interviews. They do not need a giant HR platform on day one.

2. What problem are they trying to solve?

Describe the frustrating moment, not your feature.

Weak: “Users need an interview tracker.”

Better: “A solo recruiter loses track of candidate status because interview notes live in email, calendar events, and a spreadsheet.”

The second version tells you what success should feel like: fewer loose ends and one reliable place to check candidate status.

3. What is the critical workflow?

Write the shortest path from problem to useful outcome.

For the recruiter:

1. Add a candidate.
2. Add an interview date and interviewer.
3. Save interview notes.
4. Move the candidate to the next stage.
5. View all candidates who need follow-up.

That workflow is your MVP’s backbone. Screens and components come after it.

4. What is in, and what is out?

Be painfully clear here. Your AI coding agent can build more than you need, which is exactly why you need to set the boundary.

Include in V1:

• candidate records;
• interview notes;
• pipeline status; and
• a simple follow-up view.

Out of scope:

• job-board integrations;
• automated email sequences;
• team permissions;
• reporting; and
• AI candidate scoring.

The out-of-scope list is one of the fastest ways to prevent scope creep.

5. What does “done” look like?

Do not finish with “make it modern” or “make it intuitive.” Write observable outcomes.

For example:

• A recruiter can add, edit, and archive a candidate.
• Each candidate can have interview notes and a status.
• The recruiter can see candidates who need follow-up.
• One user cannot access another user’s candidate data.

Now the agent has a build target. You have a review checklist.

Do not hide uncertainty

You will not know every answer at the start. Put the uncertainty in the brief instead of hoping the agent will pick correctly.

For example: “We have not chosen an email provider. Build the in-app follow-up view first.” Or: “Guest access is undecided; require a user account in V1.” Clear uncertainty is still useful direction. Unspoken uncertainty becomes a surprise later.

Put the answers in one short brief

You do not need to write an essay. A useful first PRD can fit on one page:

Build a web app for solo recruiters who lose track of candidate interviews. In V1, they can add candidates, log interviews, save notes, update status, and see follow-ups. Do not build job-board integrations, team access, automated emails, or candidate scoring. The app is done when a recruiter can run this workflow from start to finish without a spreadsheet.

That is enough to start a real planning conversation with an agent.

OpenAI’s guidance on prompting stresses clear instructions and success criteria. Your PRD is where those product-level instructions live.