Does your team actually use PRDs, or has something else taken over?
Anthropic recently said they don’t really rely on classic PRDs. They build a prototype, ship it internally, and let people use it. In that world, the prototype becomes the main reference.
A lot of people heard that and thought, “PRDs are dead.” I don’t think that’s quite right.
It works at Anthropic because everyone is technical, they use the product themselves, and they trust AI‑generated code enough to ship it early. The product evolves through real use, not documents.
Most teams are not like that. There’s a short call, a loose agreement, and then a ticket that misses half the conversation. By the time something ships, it’s working code, but not what was really meant.
So to me, Anthropic is not killing PRDs. It’s replacing them with heavy internal usage and fast feedback. If you remove PRDs and don’t have that, you’re not being like Anthropic. You’re just losing context.
For me, the key question is not “do we need PRDs.” It’s “what makes sure the team actually builds what it agreed on.”
