How AI Generated PRDs in EHS SaaS Drives Development Workflow

In our last blog, we shared an update on how Higher Elevation Software has been exploring artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance our software development process. Today, we’re excited to follow up on that journey and focus on a specific innovation we’ve adopted: the use of AI to generate Product Requirements Documents (PRDs). AI generated PRD in EHS SaaS is revolutionary. It’s already having a positive impact on developments to our flagship product, the EHS-Dashboard™, and adding value for our customers.  

Let’s look at why AI-generated PRDs are so valuable, how we use them at Higher Elevation Software, the practical impact on a recent project (our new Form Builder), lessons we’ve learned, and what’s next in our AI journey. 

A note about how we use AI before we move on: At HES, we operate under the core principle that AI serves as a “thought partner” in the requirements process – it doesn’t replace human product managers but rather enhances their effectiveness by helping articulate ideas more clearly. We never use AI-generated output without a human in the loop. 

Why AI-Generated PRDs Are Valuable 

A Product Requirements Document (PRD) is a key component of software development. Serving as a comprehensive guide to clarify what needs to be built and why, it’s the blueprint that a team uses to create software products, new features, or UI enhancements. At HES, we leverage fine-tuned PRDs to align our product vision with customer needs and ensure that everyone from developers to stakeholders is on the same page. Crafting these documents is time-consuming, but AI is changing the game. Here’s how: 

• Faster First Drafts: AI can rapidly produce a high-quality initial draft of a PRD based on provided inputs. This saves our product team valuable time and enables us to move from idea to action much more quickly. 

• Consistent Structure: Because AI follows learned patterns and templates, the PRDs it generates have a uniform structure and terminology. That consistency makes documents easier to read and understandable for all team members. We spend less time deciphering document formats and more on improving the EHS-Dashboard™. 

• Thorough and Data-Driven: AI doesn’t forget to include important details. It can integrate information from multiple sources such as previous requirements, customer feedback, and technical constraints into the PRD draft. The result is often a more comprehensive document that captures details or patterns a human might miss. This thoroughness helps reduce the risk of overlooking critical requirements. 

• Improved Clarity for Stakeholders: In EHS, an AI generated PRD can also help transform abstract ideas into clear, structured requirements. For example, if we prompt AI that our goal is to improve user experience, it can help break that down into specific features to add or success criteria to measure. This clarity ensures that our stakeholders and customers share a common understanding of anything being planned.  

By leveraging these benefits, our expert developers are turning PRDs from a tedious necessity into a strategic asset. A faster, clearer PRD allows the team to initiate development tasks sooner and with greater confidence. It also means that our customers benefit from a smoother, more transparent planning phase. 

AI Generated PRDs in EHS SaaS: How We Put Ideas into Action 

Integrating AI-generated PRDs into HES’s development workflow has been a thoughtful and deliberate process developed over time. We now use these three steps, but are also keeping up with the latest technological advances and expect that this process will continue to evolve. 

1. A new project begins with our product and engineering teams providing highly specific inputs. We’ve learned that better input gives us better output. We feed AI with key project information like the project vision, objectives, feature ideas, and any constraints or customer requirements we are aware of. This sets the stage for AI.  

1. Once the context is set, our AI tools generate a first draft of the Product Requirements Document. This draft isn’t final, and that’s by design. We treat the AI-generated PRDs for our EHS SaaS as a starting point, using them as working drafts for our team of experts to review and refine. In practice, we might use AI to produce the initial outline and then ask it to fill in sections such as the feature descriptions, user stories, or even technical considerations based on its training and the data we provided. 

1. Our product managers and engineers then come together to examine this draft in detail. We verify that the proposed requirements make sense, adjust any sections that need more company-specific insight, and fill in any gaps. It’s a collaborative process between AI output and human expertise. AI helps by doing a lot of the heavy lifting upfront. It organizes information and even suggests requirements. Our team adds the critical thinking and context that only experienced humans can provide.  

Throughout this process, the role of our team remains paramount. Our internal motto has become “AI-augmented, human-approved.” We ensure that every AI-generated PRD for our EHS SaaS is reviewed for accuracy, feasibility, and alignment with our customers’ interests. By doing so, we combine the best of both worlds: the efficiency of AI and the judgment of experienced product professionals. The end result is a solid plan for development that everyone trusts. 

The Real-World Impact of AI-Generated PRDs on EHS SaaS 

The HES development team is currently updating our Form Builder, a key tool that allows users to create and customize forms within the EHS-Dashboard™. The Form Builder is part of many clients’ daily workflows, so any developments demand careful planning and execution. 

Using our AI-driven PRD approach, we've broken down the Form Builder update into core components such as infrastructure, front-end interface, and advanced features like a drag-and-drop editor. For each, AI rapidly generates detailed PRD drafts, covering everything from user-friendly design requirements to backend processing and security considerations. AI even suggests useful features like form versioning and template galleries, surfacing insights that might otherwise have been overlooked. 

This process helps us start with a strong foundation, like a baseball player starting at third base rather than at bat. Our team reviews each of the AI-generated PRD drafts in collaborative sessions, refining and tailoring them to align with our product vision and priorities. The head start that AI provides enables us to focus on strategic prioritizations such as ease of use and security, as well as on trimming out-of-scope items.  

Watch for an announcement about the updated Form Builder’s launch. When it’s available, we can all be confident that it will perform reliably with minimal issues, thanks in part to the thorough planning enabled by AI-generated PRDs. 

What’s Next for Our AI-Powered Workflows 

At Higher Elevation Software, we remain committed to transparency and trust in how we use AI. We understand that AI is a rapidly evolving field, and it’s natural to have questions about it. We want our customers to feel confident that, when we use AI, we use it responsibly. That means we’re careful about data privacy. We’re highly protective of user data and do not feed it indiscriminately into external systems.  

We will always hold humans accountable for final outcomes. In the spirit of transparency, we will continue to share updates like this blog post about the role AI is playing in our work. We believe that being open about our process strengthens our partnership with you. 

The implementation of AI-generated Product Requirements Documents has been a success. The new process is quantifiably improving our efficiency in planning, enhancing the clarity and completeness of our requirements, and helping us deliver better outcomes for our customers. By combining the speed and power of AI with the wisdom and creativity of our team, we’ve managed to elevate the Higher Elevation Software development process to a new level. 

Ready to learn more about going beyond compliance with the EHS-Dashboard™? Schedule a demo today.