Appendix G: Executable Product Artifacts

Why Artifact Translation Matters

Every productive team develops artifacts: PRDs, prototypes, architecture docs, retrospectives. But in mixed teams where PM, vibe coding, and engineering collaborate, these artifacts often become siloed. The PRD sits in a document that engineers rarely read deeply. The prototype exists only in the builder's head. The postmortem never influences the next product decision.

Artifact translation bridges these gaps by expressing each artifact in the language each function actually uses. A PRD that also serves as a context packet for prototyping eliminates redundant re-communication. An ADR that captures product constraints alongside technical trade-offs prevents future debates that ignore business realities. A postmortem that feeds both prompting improvements and architectural fixes closes the learning loop.

This appendix shows how six key artifacts translate across PM, vibe coding, and engineering contexts. Use these tables to ensure your artifacts carry weight across the full product development lifecycle.

1. Eval-First PRD

The PRD anchors alignment before work begins. Expressed three ways, it serves as contract, context, and specification simultaneously.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Strategic Intent Value hypothesis: The specific user or business outcome this product aims to achieve User problem: The exact pain point being addressed, with evidence of severity Scope: What is explicitly in scope and what is explicitly excluded Acceptance logic: How we will know if the product succeeded or failed	Context Packet Context for building: Enough background that a prototype can be started without further PM input Revisions trigger: What signal indicates the prototype should change direction Success bar: The minimum viable impression this must make to proceed Known unknowns: Areas where rapid prototyping should expose answers	System Contract Tied to evaluation: Metrics that can be instrumented from day one Architecture constraints: Non-functional requirements (latency, scale, compliance) Integration points: External systems this must work with or alongside Testability: How the acceptance logic can be automated

2. User Journey / Storyboard

Maps the path users take through a product or feature. Translated across functions, it becomes a behavior spec, a prototyping scenario library, and a test plan.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Behavior and Value Path User motivation: Why the user starts this journey Decision points: Where choices branch the path Value delivery: Where and how value is realized Friction points: Known or suspected obstacles	Scenario Library Prototyping scenarios: Specific flows to build and test rapidly Edge cases: Unusual but important paths to explore State variations: How the UI responds to different data states Handoff prompts: Structured inputs for building each scenario	Test Cases, Traces, Instrumentation Test cases: Automated coverage of each major path Trace spans: Observability points at key journey steps Instrumentation plan: Events and attributes to capture analytics Failure modes: What to log when things go wrong at each step

3. Prototype Review

Structured feedback after a prototyping phase. Each function extracts different lessons and actions from the same review session.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Strategic Delta Opportunity changes: Did the prototype reveal the problem is different than expected? Scope revisions: What expanded, contracted, or shifted based on feedback User insight gains: New understanding of user needs or behaviors Go/no-go rationale: Should this move forward, pivot, or stop?	Learning Capture Learned quickly: What the prototype confirmed or revealed Stayed ambiguous: What remains unclear and needs more exploration Prompting improvements: What instructions worked, what didn't Context gaps: What context was missing when things went wrong	Hardening Justification Technical feasibility: What the prototype proved is (in)feasible to build properly Scale concerns: What was learned about performance or capacity needs Debt incurred: What shortcuts were taken that must be addressed Hardening scope: What needs to be rebuilt vs. refined for production

4. Architecture Decision Record

Documents significant technical decisions and their rationale. When enriched with PM context, it becomes a shared contract rather than a one-way announcement.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Product Constraints Non-negotiables: Business requirements that must be satisfied Launch timeline: Constraints on when this must be ready User expectations: Performance, reliability, or feature requirements users expect Cost boundaries: Budget or resource limits that shape choices	Prototype Revelations System needs identified: What the prototype exposed about backend requirements Integration gaps: Where the prototype hit walls due to missing APIs or data Scaling signals: At what usage level the prototype would break UX constraints: What the prototype revealed about what users need from the system	Trade-off Documentation Decision made: The specific choice among alternatives Alternatives considered: Other approaches and why they were rejected Consequences: Both benefits and risks of the chosen path Reversibility: How costly it would be to change this later

5. Postmortem

After-action review that closes the loop on what worked and what did not. Translation ensures insights reach all parts of the organization.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Product Learning Product-market fit insights: Did the product deliver expected value? User behavior surprises: Unexpected ways users engaged or struggled Feature effectiveness: Which features drove outcomes and which did not Roadmap implications: How this should shape future product direction	Prompting and Flow Improvements Prompt refinement: What prompts led to good outputs vs. bad ones Context optimization: What context made the biggest difference Flow gaps: Where the vibe coding workflow broke down Toolchain learnings: What tooling changes would speed up prototyping	Architecture and Reliability Architecture changes: Structural improvements needed based on production behavior Reliability action items: Specific fixes to improve uptime or performance Technical debt: What was accumulated that must be paid down Monitoring gaps: What observability was missing when issues occurred

6. Eval Suite

The set of evaluations that determine whether a product or feature is working. Translation ensures eval suites serve both rapid iteration and production quality.

PM Form	Vibe-coding Form	Engineering Form
Acceptance Criteria Success metrics: Quantifiable measures of product success Confidence thresholds: Minimum statistical confidence required to ship Red lines: Metrics that must not degrade to ship Decision criteria: When to ship, iterate, or abandon	Good Enough Bar Prototyping threshold: When a prototype is good enough to show for feedback Iteration signal: What eval results indicate a pivot vs. press on Minimum bar: The lowest quality bar acceptable for a prototype Escalation triggers: When to involve engineering for harder problems	Test Infrastructure Test infrastructure: How evals are automated and run Regression criteria: What must pass before any deployment Benchmark suite: Standardized tests for consistency comparisons Failure handling: How eval failures surface and who responds

Use this appendix as a checklist when creating or reviewing artifacts to ensure cross-functional value.