The Case for Product Depth: A Conversation with Chat PRD Creator Claire Vo
The Case for Product Depth: A Conversation with Chat PRD Creator Claire Vo
Learn about ChatPRD and the future of product development with AI
Estimated read time: 3 minutes 44 seconds.
This is Sunday 1-1-2-3 with George.
🆕 In today’s edition:
🆓 A Conversation with Chat PRD Creator Claire Vo
Claire's ChatPRD Origin Story
Why PRDs Fall Short (And How to Fix It)
Revolutionizing PRD Creation with AI
The Tech-Savvy PM: A Modern Imperative
Taking the Leap with Chat PRD
🆓 Product Leader's Guide to Execution
🆓 ChatGPT Can Analyze Any Business In Seconds
You - unfortunately or not - cannot take the PRD (product requirements document) out of product work.
It has different names, has many haters, many templates, but the fact remains - you probably can’t escape some form of written product documentation.
It guides vision, facilitates alignment, and establishes a baseline for measuring success.
Yet, traditional PRDs can be time-consuming to craft and often need more specificity to drive genuinely informed decisions.
I recently sat down with Claire Vo to discuss her insights on the challenges of PRD writing, the innovative power of AI assistance, and the growing need for technical depth in the PM role.
Claire's ChatPRD Origin Story
If you're a product manager and you've never heard of Claire Vo, it's a shame, but we're about to fix that.
Claire is awesome.
She's a mom, a founder, and a CPO at LaunchDarkly, and now she's building a tool for product people called ChatPRD.
(ChatPRD is excellent. We'll talk about it in a moment.)
First, why is Claire building a side hustle when she has all these other responsibilities?
At the very least, she could relax in her cushy CPO role (this is a joke; there's nothing cushy or relaxing about a CPO role).
Well, Claire is a builder. She is also technical.
As CPO at a startup, she occasionally had to act as an individual contributor.
Sometimes, there were not enough people to do all the product work.
Sometimes, the feature was too technical.
So she rolled up her sleeves and did some of it herself.
(Knowing Claire a bit, she also loves doing all this product work; it's fun for her.)
But writing product requirements documents is NOT FUN.
Before ChatPRD.ai was born, Claire decided to bootstrap her writing with AI, took advantage of the new ChatGPT store and assembled her GPT with custom instructions. (You can find it here.)
However, as I also realized, the significant limitation of Custom GPTs is that although ChatGPT is one of the biggest consumer product growth stories, most folks don't use it as much as the power users do.
Indeed, only some people pay for a Plus subscription, which is how you can access the Custom GPTs.
Thus, the reach of a Custom GPT is limiting.
So, naturally, Claire built an independent version using the OpenAI API, which comes in much cheaper than a ChatGPT subscription and doesn't require a ChatGPT Plus subscription.
Earlier, my friend Carl interviewed Claire, and she talked about the product/market fit for the product already.
I love hearing this.
And it's not just an "API wrapper".
To get to fit and stickiness with an AI product that leverages an external API, you have to fit it deeper into the workflow, making it so that a vanilla ChatGPT experience can't easily replace your product.
(Otter.ai is another good example that uses generative AI to talk to a transcript, but in an integrated way, inside the product and across multiple transcripts, which ChatGPT can only do with significant copy-pasting action.)
Why PRDs Fall Short (And How to Fix It)
Claire observes that many PRDs are plagued by vague requirements, unfocused problem definitions, and a lack of solution-oriented thinking.
"I often find [PRDs] missing that level of specificity about exactly who the user is and exactly what motivates them," she explains.
This lack of clarity can derail cross-functional collaboration.
Claire advocates for an opinionated PM who's unafraid to explore potential solutions.
These specific solutions, even if imperfect, spark generative discussion and push teams to identify the best ways to solve user problems.
Revolutionizing PRD Creation with AI
Chat PRD's appeal lies in its ability to address the "cold start" dilemma faced by PMs staring at a blank document.
"Chat PRD can type faster than I can think," says Claire. "It gets the ball rolling, giving me an initial scaffold to build upon."
This frees up valuable time and mental energy, allowing PMs to focus on refining the product vision and diving deeper into complex areas.
While still undergoing development, Chat PRD already offers helpful features like document creation and editing. These ensure it works alongside the PM's process rather than disrupting it.
Future enhancements, like uploading research and contextual materials, could transform it into a mighty 'co-pilot' for the entire product lifecycle.
The Tech-Savvy PM: A Modern Imperative
Claire passionately believes in the value of technical depth for product managers.
While coding expertise isn't the goal, she stresses the importance of PMs being fluent in the fundamentals of their products.
This translates to understanding architectural concepts, data fluency, and the ability to engage in meaningful technical discussions with engineers.
"We build software," Claire argues. "If you don't understand the core language of how it's being built, it's difficult to do your job well."
Taking the Leap with Chat PRD
Chat PRD demonstrates the promise of AI in improving the product management process.
While it won't replace the strategic skill of a PM, it stands to accelerate and augment the PRD creation stage.
Claire herself believes, "It saves me a lot of time. To me, it's probably even worth significantly more than the price point that it's at."
If you want a tool to streamline your PRD process, try it!
Want to try Chat PRD for yourself?
Have questions for Claire or want to follow her work? Find her on X.
Let's Talk PRDs!
We want to hear about your experiences!
Share your top PRD challenges and strategies in the comments below.
What tools do you use, and what's your ideal for a streamlined PRD process?
🎓 2 Learning Opportunities
Article: Product Leader's Guide to Execution
Time: 5 minutes
Video/Audio: ChatGPT Can Analyze Any Business In Seconds
Time: 8 minutes
⏮️ Rewind
This Week’s Highlights From Twitter
🤝 That's a wrap for… a while.
I decided to pause and reflect. I paused all the paid subscriptions indefinitely.
The new issue won’t come out next Sunday. We’ll see about after that.
I’m going to continue to write and share when I can, on my own schedule.
Thank you for your support.
If you want more, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@nurijanian)
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Who's George?
I’m an underdog product manager. I’ve had to learn the craft the hard way.
To become better, I learn and explore new ideas every day, relentlessly.
Then I share high-quality, tried-and-true ideas that can be used right away.
See you next week.
— George.