{"id":"pm-prd-metrics-guardrails","audience":"product-managers","category":"planning","track":"productivity","technique":"format","title":"Write a PRD metrics section with one primary metric","free":false,"task":"Your PRD needs a Success metrics section that reviewers can hold you to. Write exactly 3 numbered lines labeled 'Primary:', 'Guardrail:' and 'Guardrail:', each with a baseline, a target or limit, and a time frame from your notes, plain text, under 75 words. There can be only one primary metric, and vanity metrics the team rejected must not appear.","materialLabel":"Metrics discussion notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"PRD: Smart reorder suggestions (Pantrywise), metrics discussion\n\nOptions discussed:\n- Page views of the suggestions panel. Lee: vanity metric, rejected.\n- Weekly orders that include at least one suggested item. Baseline: 0% (new feature). Target: 25% of weekly orders within 8 weeks of launch. AGREED as primary.\n- Average order value. Baseline $62. Rachel wanted it as primary; team agreed it's a guardrail: must not drop below $60 during the 8 weeks.\n- Unsubscribes from reorder emails. Baseline 0.4% per send. Guardrail: must stay under 0.6% per send for the 8 weeks.\n- Time in app. Rejected, doesn't connect to the goal.\n- NPS. Rejected for this PRD; measured company-wide anyway.\n\nReviewer feedback on our last PRD (from VP Product): \"You listed 9 metrics. That means none of them mattered.\"","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":3},{"type":"maxWords","max":75},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Asking for 'success metrics'","why":"The AI lists 6-10 metrics with headings, including every idea in the notes.","fix":"Be exact: \"Exactly 3 numbered lines: Primary:, Guardrail:, Guardrail:. Plain text.\"","checks":["numberedItems","plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each line instead: \"each line under 20 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Missing baselines and time frames","why":"The AI names metrics without numbers, so nobody can tell later if they were hit.","fix":"Add: \"Each line: baseline, target or limit, and the 8-week window.\"","checks":["r0","r1"]},{"title":"Bringing back rejected metrics","why":"Page views and NPS are in the notes, and the AI includes them to be thorough.","fix":"Add: \"Leave out page views, time in app and NPS.\"","checks":["r2"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Shows the labels","patterns":["primary:?","guardrail"]},{"label":"Asks for baselines and targets","patterns":["baseline","target","limit","time frame","8 weeks"]},{"label":"Drops rejected metrics","patterns":["rejected","vanity","page views","nps"]},{"label":"Only one primary","patterns":["one primary","only one","single"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)"]}],"hint":"A metrics section is a promise you can check later. Tell the AI the labels, that every line needs a baseline, target and window, and which metrics were rejected.","rubricLabels":["Line 1 is Primary: share of weekly orders with at least one suggested item, from 0% to 25% within 8 weeks of launch","The two Guardrail lines are average order value staying at or above $60 (baseline $62) and reorder email unsubscribes staying under 0.6% per send (baseline 0.4%), over the 8 weeks","No rejected metric appears (page views, time in app, NPS), average order value is not called primary, and there is no intro or explanation"]}