A lot of times, being a product manager is more than organizing, planning, and executing. It’s clearly not an easy feat as it has several layers to it. From creative to technical, there are multiple verticals managers need to focus on. There are times when project managers need to get into the shoes of the consumer to develop a mindset that would allow the product to come to life. Whether it is collaborating with the development team or streamlining the product for the target audience, managers have a lot on their plate. Documentation, therefore, plays a huge role in simplifying their tasks. Once you develop an understanding of the above-mentioned documents and start integrating them, you will be able to contribute to the success of the product through an effective management process. That is all for now. If you have any more doubts, feel free to connect with us for more information. Until then, stay tuned for more tech insights!

1. 10 Key Documentations For Product
Managers To Live By!
The exchange of information plays a crucial role in mobile app development. That is
the reason why product managers devote a significant amount of time to enable the
same via documentation.
As a top mobile app development company, we understand the long-term goal of
documentation management. And with the help of this blog, we will help you learn
the benefits of written communication during development and the popular types of
documentation.
But first, let’s start with the basics!
What Is Product Management Document?
It is the process of developing, sharing, and managing project documents. Product
documentation is anything that plays a role in the product life cycle, from the initial
project schedule to project closure.

2. Product Management documents are the collection of documents that explains
almost everything there is to know about a product or piece of software. The goal of
product documentation is to enable users to get maximum use and value out of the
product in question.
This kind of documentation is essential because it brings all the information about
your app, product, or service, into one place. You can focus on everything here, from
physical product details, features lists, aesthetic and marketing materials, and
approaches to sales and branding.
What Are Advantages of Project Management Document?
It is essential to understand the benefits of a technique before blindly following it. On
that note, let us fetch more clarity on the perks of project management
documentation.
1. Easy Access To Information
With project documentation, there is no need to go back and forth to retrieve basic
information about the product, as the team has no confusion about where the
documents are saved.
Since the documents are saved in one place, team members can easily find the
information they need. With documentation saved in one location, the development
team knows where to find the details they need.
2. Standardized Development Processes
Documentation ensures that no matter how quickly the team grows within a business
process, the quality each of them goes through remains consistent.
Standardization is essential for any development process as it plays a crucial
role in the alignment of the team. It lets your team operate on the same page,
even if you are operating with a mixture of departments.

3. It triggers the overall efficiency of the team by streamlining the workflow.
3. Reduce Errors
Product documentation helps in version control. It means that one can track and
review past the different versions of the same document. With an audit trail, project
managers can view the changes made, reducing the chances of error.
Now that you are accustomed to the perks of project documentation, let’s explore the
top key practices followed by the managers all around the world.
Major Key Documentations That Project Managers Can’t Ignore!
If your goal is to maximize the productivity of your team and the development, the
below-mentioned documentation will surely come in handy.
1. Documentation for competitive analysis
Market research is one of the extensive tasks implemented before initiating the
development process. And the first step to it is competitive analysis. This helps the
mobile app builders to scrutinize the client’s product competitive scope over the
similar ones in the stores.
Here the task majorly consists of investigating the goods and services offered by the
existing competition in the market. In addition to that, the research is also focused on
evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors.
Documentation pertaining to competitive analysis consisting of all of the
above-mentioned factors is created and shared for the development team’s review.
The design can only be finalized by the product manager once they have executed
comprehensive research on the competition.
The competitor’s table in the competitive analysis documentation needs to include
the following-
● Name of the competitors

4. ● Website address of the competitor
● Number of visitors, users, or app downloads
● Duration for which competitor has been present in the market
● Competitor’s area of expertise
● Revenue generated
● Notes and suggestions
It is important to note that the content for this document may vary from one
project to another. Some of the other forms of competitor analysis popular
amongst project managers include-
● Capabilities analysis
● Competitive landscape analysis
● Competitive differentiation analysis
● Imitability Ladder analysis
● Value Proposition analysis
2. Documentation for product strategy and vision
Clarity on the vision for any product you are trying to develop helps to build a picture
for the future of the same. Vision becomes a way to inspire teams, partners, and
investors in the form of a streamlined narrative or a prototype. Managers need to
work on an effective product strategy that clears the viewpoint of the product to the
audience.
Product strategy and vision, both are required to succeed as a brand. To support the
same and to gather all of the information required to figure the output, documentation
plays a key role.
Documentation helps to bring the concept to reality. It is then shared with the
stakeholders for feedback.

5. 3. Product Requirement Documentation
PRDs collectively highlight different aspects of a product in a single location.
Specification documentation is highly popular, and they provide quality control
testing, standards, requirements, description of the app’s characteristics, and much
more.
PRDs may vary from one another as every single one of them would have its
separate specifications. Here’s what these documentation layouts would include-
● Research issue statements
● Success metrics
● MVP feature list
● Technical implementation details
Product requirements documents contain all the necessary steps to build the app.
In addition to that, it also contains possible complications or difficulties and the
decision to keep or discard a particular set of features.
For product managers, this document is a medium to visualize the following-
● Amount of time necessary for project development processes
● Comprehend the number of resources required for project development
processes
● Establish a mutually complete understanding between users and the
development team
4. Success Metrics Documentation, KPIs, Objectives
& Key Results

6. Project managers use Objectives and Key Results as a mechanism to decide the
goals of product development. Then as the process continues, managers then
access the overall outcome.
Where do you wish to go?
Have you arrived or failed?
Above are the two questions answered by the process. The aim helps the team stay
focused on the goals, and the outcomes determine if the goal is attained or not.
KPI or Key Performance Indicator determines the current stage of development and
is used to measure the overall success of the process. Few KPIs are mentioned
below-
● Customer lifetime value
● Trial-to-Customer conversion rate in sales
● Web traffic
● Conversion rate in marketing
These KPIs objectives and their outcomes are listed in the relevant documentation.
5. Roadmaps Documentation
In general, the roadmap of any process helps in communicating the importance of
the product to the development teams. Therefore, it is one of the most important
documents that managers are required to curate. It is basically a document that lists
all the planned initiatives necessary to proficiently build the application or software.
For roadmap documentation, the project managers develop a product life cycle that
outlines the following-
● What needs to be done
● When it needs to be done

7. ● How it needs to be done
As the name suggests, roadmap documentation is sort of a route laid by product
managers for the entire team to live by. These are distributed amongst the
teammates with embedded PowerPoint presentations.
6. Documentation For Design & Prototypes
Building something from ground zero is not like shooting fish in the barrel. Similarly,
working on product design from scratch and without a blueprint is difficult. Therefore,
project managers need to prepare a document that contains a record of revisions
and modifications implemented in the product design.
As far as prototyping is concerned, project managers have a different experience
than designers and engineers. They make sure to set a tone for prototyping by
sharing clarity about goals and streamlining the roadmap for the team to follow.
One question that might pop up in your mind, why do project managers need to
worry about prototype documentation! Let’s answer your question with a set of
benefits it delivers-
● All required iterations are completed in a jiffy.
● It is crucial to provide justification for the notions during the initial stages of the
product development.
● The potential for misunderstanding is completely eliminated.
● Prototype documentation enables improvements in the quality of technical
feedback.
7. Consumer Journey & User Narrative
Documentation

8. User stories and consumer journeys are two critical tools used during the
development of any product. Therefore, product managers maintain the
documentation for these two positions to ensure that all the necessary details are
recorded and kept safe and secure.
For a user narrative document, managers need to think about several reasons why a
user would want to utilize the product that is being developed. They need to evaluate
the development on a microscopic level to understand the user narrative. This would
require project managers to record everything that might lead up to users interacting
with the platform’s features, bugs, requests, and much more.
On the other hand, the consumer journey highlights the complete user experience.
Starting from the point of download to product’s feature usage, a consumer journey
document would map the entire experience. It proves extremely helpful in situations
where product managers need to explain & establish confidence in the product in
front of the stakeholders and their development team. In addition to this, the
document can be helpful for running ad campaigns or illustrating the use case of a
product to its target audience.
8. Release Notes & Scope Documentation
Release notes are the documents that are shared with the release of the new SaaS
product or app platform. Since the SaaS products differ from each other, no two
documents are the same. Product documentation for release notes is prepared
because of the following reasons-
● Inform the users about the new standards
● Discover the issues that have been resolved
● Market the app after the completion of the update
Managers use scope documentation as a tool to define the features that the product
would contain. Some groups also refer to it as the scope of work documents, and it
highlights characteristics of the features.

9. 9. Guides And Frequently Asked Questions
Delivering internal and confidential guides and FAQs to the stakeholders is required
to keep information flowing through the complete development process. The FAQs
are written in simple language and need to be to the point. In addition to this, it also
consists of a wireframe of the product along with a strong UX component.
Through this documentation, project managers can ensure that the information is
being recorded in a way that simplifies the hand-offs within the team.
These are internal manuals that have complete information about the functioning of
the development process. These also act as references for different departments like
marketing, sales, and customer support to deliver an improved experience to the
target audience.
10. User Manual Documentation
Also known as consumer-facing product documentation, these are the responsibility
of product managers. It’s one of the most used & developed documents which
covers information for the target audience on how to use the product.
A newly launched product in the market without a proper user manual may leave a
huge gap between the consumers and the business. This documentation will help
the consumer to get started and become accustomed to the product until they get
used to it.
Product Document Management: Optimization & Best Practices
Having reviewed the perks and the popular types of documentation, you might be
wondering how to put the information into action.
Let me share some of the popular tips to follow the same!
1. Plan your documentation

10. Through planning, you would be able to build a solid foundation right from the
beginning. It plays a key role in establishing the direction and management you need
to stay on top of your documentation game.
Not to mention that planning your documentation presents you with an opportunity to
share the details with your team before it goes live.
For planning the product document management, you may use work management
software. It will help you to create a robust and flexible document plan.
2. Share processes with the team
After finalizing the product document plan, you must share the details with your
development team. It promotes transparency and keeps everyone up to the speed of
the latest development.
Try to use shared inbox tools to ensure that the team is aligned with the plan.
3. Archive what’s not important
You don’t need to delete the documents that are no longer up-to-date or required, as
you can simply archive them.
Information in the documents could turn valuable in the future for new team
members. But you don’t need to keep them at the forefront of your documentation.
Archiving lets you store out-of-date documents and makes it easy for your team to
navigate through the pool of information.
Wrapping It Up!
A lot of times, being a product manager is more than organizing, planning, and
executing. It’s clearly not an easy feat as it has several layers to it. From creative to
technical, there are multiple verticals managers need to focus on.
There are times when project managers need to get into the shoes of the consumer
to develop a mindset that would allow the product to come to life. Whether it is

11. collaborating with the development team or streamlining the product for the target
audience, managers have a lot on their plate. Documentation, therefore, plays a
huge role in simplifying their tasks.
Once you develop an understanding of the above-mentioned documents and
start integrating them, you will be able to contribute to the success of the
product through an effective management process.
That is all for now. If you have any more doubts, feel free to connect with us for
more information.
Until then, stay tuned for more tech insights!