What is the best way to start when writing a PRD (Product Requirement Document)? Gather information about who is going to use your product and more importantly, what will motivate them to use it. By creating these PRD templates, I hope to ease the learning curve and make a product requirement framework that can be used anytime you need to create newer products in your job or business.
We are going to create a sample PRD for a remote assistance app that will help field technicians by instantly connecting to experienced remote technicians whenever they are stuck.
Name of the product: Expert Assist
| Description (For field technicians) | Facing irritated customers? Stuck and don’t know how to diagnose the issue? Quickly solve hard problems by asking expert technicians from your mobile phone. |
| Description (For support managers / management) | The best Field Service Management (FSM) software that will help you improve customer experience, technician utilization and First Time Fix (FTF) rate while reducing resource costs for site installation, repair and maintenance services. |
Objective
On-site technician support is expensive for any organization, financially and logistically.
Expert Assist aims to reduce the logistical effort and make the field support pipeline more efficient which reduces costs for the organization while positively adding to the customer experience.
Personas
| Personas | Description | Type (USER / BUYER / INFLUENCER) | Category (PRIMARY/ SECONDARY/ TERTIARY) |
| Call Center executive | Fresher straight out of college. Loves to solve problems. Frustrated by unruly or impatient callers. Loves to help people. Keeps planning towards how he can make more money. Puts customers first and does not like to look stupid in front of customers or his manager. | User | Secondary |
| Field Technician (Young) | Lives in a rented or low income housing. Uses public transport or two wheeler to travel long distances. Bachelor who stays with parents and supports them by earning additional salary income. Loves to eat out and hangout with friends. Tech savy, knows how to use audio / video calls, payment apps and video streaming services. Main problem for him is he is not able to find time for himself despite receiving an award for the most houses visited last month. Has 1.5 years of experience and sometimes has to make extra visits to the same house to install spare parts which he didn’t think were needed in the first visit. | User | Primary |
| Remote Service Technician (Middle Aged) | Lives in a rented or low income housing. Uses public transport or two wheeler to travel long distances. Married and sole breadwinner, has two kids, wife and old parents. Worries about education of kids and health of parents. Cannot afford to take a leave. Main problem for him is he gets really tired at the end of each day yet makes fewer house calls as compared to his younger more dynamic colleagues. He has 15 years of experience and can confidently fix all issues related to the consumer product. Needs dedicated training and development to adapt to remote service software. | User | Primary |
| Support Manager | Middle aged, married with one child, has taken a 30 year home loan and a 5 year car loan. Expenses include grocery shopping. Frequently feels overwhelmed, enjoys watching cricket. Bit lonely since losing touch with most of his cricket playing gang. Takes out his family for movie nights and restaurant outings. Frequently looks at his beer belly and thinks about exercising but never finds the time or energy to start. | Influencer | Secondary |
| COO (Chief Operating Officer) | Middle aged, likes to run to keep himself fit. Graduated from IIM with theoretical business administration knowledge. Has 10 years of experience in leading operational teams. No child by choice. Loves to travel and has visited 37 countries till date. He has bought the latest Xbox and PS and has a great collection of games, loves to play on his 58 inch TV. Frequently throws house parties. Extrovert and people person, loves to socialize. Understands people and their inner motivations. | Buyer | Tertiary |
Competitors
| Competing Product | Description | Category |
| https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/field-service/overview/ | Get actionable insights, share critical data, and access real-time remote expert support using IoT and AI-driven tools to boost first time fix rates. | Primary |
| https://www.salesforce.com/blog/remote-virtual-assistance-service/ | With remote customer assistance, field service organizations can deliver service from anywhere, keeping both workers and customers safe. | Primary |
| https://www.servicemax.com/products/zinc | Reduce Time to Service 37% with Zinc Intelligent Remote Service. ServiceMax Zinc connects technicians in real time with the people and information needed to confidently get the job done quickly and correctly, allowing organizations to reduce mean time to repair, boost customer satisfaction and improve employee engagement. | Primary |
User Stories and Requirements
| # | As a User (Persona) | I want to | So that I | Priority | |
| 1 | Field Technician | Remove outer panelling | Can work towards finding inner components | LOW | |
| 2 | Field Technician | Check for voltage flow | Can understand the root cause / component failure | LOW | |
| 3 | Field Technician | Order spare parts | Can replace damaged parts | MEDIUM | |
| 4 | Field Technician | Find cause of issue as per training | Can fix issue as per training | LOW | |
| 5 | Field Technician | Apply a temporary fix | Customer signs off the issue as closed | LOW | |
| 6 | Field Technician | Reads Job history | Can understand what was done previously by him or some other field technician assigned to this job and take his next steps accordingly | HIGH | |
| 7 | Field Technician | Clock in and Clock out for individual field visit | Doesn’t matter to me, but is standard compliance for higher ups failing which I will be reprimanded | HIGH | |
| 8 | Field Technician | Maintenance History of field product | To understand any damage and root cause for the current issue due to maintenance not being done. Can also renew the maintenance contract and impress my boss. | MEDIUM | |
| 9 | Field Technician | Customer Sign Off | Leave this place and go home | HIGH | |
| 10 | Field Technician | Read more about the product specifications and how to repair, fix and maintain the product | Perform better, impress my boss and get a better salary | HIGH | |
| 11 | Field Technician | Inspect and perform standard safety checks | Don’t get electrocuted. It hurts. | MEDIUM | |
| 12 | Field Technician | Raise customer invoice | Can go to the next place / Go home | HIGH | |
| 13 | Field Technician | Verify payment is done by customer | Can go to the next place / Go home | HIGH | |
| 14 | Remote Service Technician | Reads Job history | Helps in drilling down to the root cause of the current issue | MEDIUM | |
| 15 | Remote Service Technician | Talk to Field Technician | I need to communicate with him on the ground to get him to physically perform tasks which I am not able to sitting on my laptop | HIGH | |
| 16 | Remote Service Technician | See live field video | Understand the state of the product and it’s components as per training | HIGH | |
| 17 | Remote Service Technician | Look at a specific area in varied lighting conditions | Diagnose the problem faster even in day or night conditions. | HIGH | |
| 18 | Remote Service Technician | Get specific readings / measurements | Can check if the readings have diverted from their ideal values | HIGH | |
| 19 | Remote Service Technician | Able to read customer complaint | Can understand the customer’s perspective of the issue at hand and see if that helps in getting to the root cause of the issue | MEDIUM | |
| 20 | Remote Service Technician | Get spare parts inventory of currently connected field technician | Can decide if the damaged part can be replaced in the current visit or will it take another visit in case part not available right now | MEDIUM | |
| 21 | Support Manager | Get individual visit performance reports | Check team performance of Field Technician and Remote Service Technician | HIGH | |
| 22 | Support Manager | Get daily / weekly / monthly performance reports | Analyse and Optimize support operations | HIGH | |
| 23 | Support Manager | Get FTF (First Time Fix) and performance reports for each visit | Analyse and Optimize support operations | HIGH | |
| 24 | Support Manager | Get performance of field technicians | Analyse and Optimize support operations | HIGH | |
| 25 | Support Manager | Get performance of remote service technicians | Train my staff better, review and improve their individual performance | HIGH | |
| 26 | Support Manager | Get visit wise inventory reports | Plan spare parts warehouse inventory | HIGH | |
| 27 | Support Manager | Get daily / weekly / monthly inventory reports | Analyse and Optimize support operations, send consolidated report to COO | HIGH | |
| 28 | Support Manager | Report Dashboards | Analyse and Optimize support operations, send consolidated report to COO | HIGH | |
| 29 | Support Manager | Drill Down Reports | Analyse and Optimize support operations, send consolidated report to COO | HIGH | |
| 30 | Support Manager | Failure Analysis | Analyse and Optimize support operations | HIGH | |
| 31 | Support Manager | Define SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) | Standardize and bring efficiency to support operations | HIGH | |
| 32 | Support Manager | Check and manage customer history and satisfaction | Analyse and Optimize support operations | MEDIUM | |
| 33 | Support Manager | Check warranty and claims | Assign to warranty and claims handling teams | MEDIUM | |
| 34 | Support Manager | Track inventory of spare parts | Plan inventory buying and stockpiling | MEDIUM | |
| 35 | Support Manager | Forecast if demand will increase or decrease | Analyse and Optimize support operations | MEDIUM | |
| 36 | Support Manager | Get Customer Feedback | Analyse and Optimize support operations | MEDIUM | |
| 37 | Support Manager | Create and Manage Pricing Configurations | Optimize revenue and create the configurations to be used while estimating a quotation by the Call Center Executive | MEDIUM | |
| 38 | Call Center executive | Manage schedule of field technicians | Assign a technician to the customer’s issue as per Standard Operating Procedure and schedule date and time as per customer’s availability. | HIGH | |
| 39 | Call Center executive | Manage dispatch of field technicians | Dispatch a technician who can solve the customer’s issue instead of assigning a random technician. If the customer calls again with the same issue, it will impact my KRA. | HIGH | |
| 40 | Call Center executive | Check current area of field technician as per GPS locations | Dispatch a technician who already is in the area instead of assigning a technician who will take 6 hours to reach the customer’s place. | HIGH | |
| 41 | Call Center executive | Send Quotes & Estimations for customer’s current requirements | Tell the customer the pricing and ask if I should book a technician | HIGH | |
| 42 | Call Center executive | Create and Manage Customer Bookings / Appointments | Create a record in the system for customer booking and assign a technician to send to the customer’s location | MEDIUM |
Performance Requirements
| Requirement | Objective | Success Metric |
| FTF (First Time Fix) | Ideally, issue should be fixed in a single visit with customer sign off to improve efficiency. | Total First Time Fixed Visits / Total Monthly Visits |
| Average Time on Field | The issue should be solved quickly which helps both the customer and the support company | Avg time spend on a site should ideally be tending to (=>) 0 |
| Average Remote Help Time | This is the time per visit where field technician requires help of a remote technician. This will help us figure out if remote assistance speeds up the solution. | Avg of difference in minutes between stop and start time |
| Open Support Tickets | This helps us plan our resources while predicting demand. This should ideally be tending to 0 as well if issue are being signed off and closed. | Daily / Weekly / Monthly Open Support Tickets |
| Average Time to Close Support Tickets | In and ideal world, a technician should be dispatched the same day support tickets was opened and fixed in the first visit itself. This value should be as low as possible. | Avg of difference in minutes between opening and closing of support tickets |
| Average Response Time | This should be measured for all 3 roles i.e. Field technician, remote technician and call center executive to understand responsiveness of the support infrastructure. | Difference in time between request received and response sent. |
| Average Cost per Field Technician | By using remote service technicians, the avg cost per field technician will reduce. This metric will be a good measure as to how much the cost will reduce. | Daily / Weekly / Monthly Avg cost per field technician |
Safety Requirements
| Requirement | Objective |
| Wear Uniform | Uniform designed keeping the services in mind with fire retardant uniform |
| Wear Rubber Gloves | Keep skin safe from harmful chemicals |
| Wear a N95 mask | Hygiene and safety for both technician and consumer |
| Handwashing before touching customer appliance | Hygiene and safety for both technician and consumer |
| Handwashing after touching customer appliance | Hygiene and safety for both technician and consume |
| Avoid smelling of chemicals | Keep technician from inhaling chemical fumes having unknown consequences |
| Training for fall protection including harnesses, lanyards and anchors | Enables technician to work in precarious positions while keeping the person safe |
| Training to handle High Voltage | Keep technician safe |
| Training to approach confined spaces | Keep technician safe |
| Medical Kit | Emergency use medical kit in case of injuries |
Security Requirements
| Requirement | Objective |
| GPS Tracking | Location of field technician should be known at all times in order to alert / alarm in case of mishaps. |
| SOS Button | Field technician can reach out for help with the SOS button which immediately triggers safety / evacuation procedures. |
Validation Techniques
Pre-Development Stage
1) Survey: Take a random survey of all stakeholder categories i.e. Jr.Field Technicians, Sr Field
Technicians, Support Manager and COO to understand their pain points, motivation and action
drivers with operational budget allocations for solutions.
2) Existing Market Products: Check if existing products are already available in the market. Work
to get revenue numbers for the product line of that company. If the product line is profitable, it
clearly validates market demand.
3) Google Ads Keyword Planner: Check the keyword search volume related to your product e.g.
‘remote service management software’ OR ‘remote service tool’ to understand region wise
online search demand for your product idea
Post-Development Stage
A/B Testing: This determines which version of your product is more suitable for your target audience. Make 2 groups of randomly selected participants from your internal / company wide people, show 2 versions of the same product and track which version leads to higher conversions. ‘Versions’ is loosely used here and can be simply a colour / theme change or a complete onboarding / login flow change depending on what your goals are.
Beta Testing: This helps you understand how many external users like and adopt your product. This is usually a closed release to users outside your friends / family / company to ‘test the waters’ so to speak.
User stickiness / retention survey: After a week of using the product, take a survey of a Beta testing participants or A/B test participants and ask them “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?” If over 40% of your users answer ‘very disappointed’, you have achieved product-market fit. If not, then the group that answered ‘very disappointed’ will unlock product-market fit and you would need to dig into that demographic to understand the product and feature demand from that target group.
Future Work
Wireframes need to be given by the product team to the software development team to clarify as to how exactly the user activity will flow. The development team can modify those as required from the tech perspective and create DFD (Data Flow Diagrams) and Architecture Diagrams on top of that.
Read RFM Segmentation for FREE to segment your customers, find the set of customers that will possibly churn in the future or are the ones producing the most value for your product . You can also read RMAO Model to prioritise product roadmap to figure out how you can successfully prioritize product development
Featured Image by Freepik
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