Will vibe coding replace PRDs?

TL;DR: No way

Vibe coding is having a moment. Instead of writing PRDs, teams dive straight into code or design, building quick prototypes to test ideas. It feels fast, collaborative, and a lot more energizing than a narrative. Recently, Mahdu Guru, a Google Gemini product lead shared that “Google is moving from a writing first culture to a building first one”.

This is a provocative way to express this shift and that’s partially why this tweet became viral. However, here is the catch: vibe coding can’t replace product narratives as they capture important details not included in a vibe coding tool.

Narratives are still very helpful as they capture things like customer pain points, market sizing, success metrics, the business case and economics, as well as key risks and dependencies. Not only are these not part of the vibe coding process, but also the process of writing them down helps make a product manager’s thinking crisper. I have analyzed this thesis in depth but in summary writing leads to better business outcomes.

Building a product without clear purpose is the fastest way to build something no one needs.

Vibe coding is a great enhancement of the PRD as it can improve some sections like a mockup of a screen or a user flow which enable non-designers to deliver them faster and better than before.

Reading the thread, Madhu provides clarifications like “ the vibe coding bit is for rapid prototyping. the rigor remains in eng design and architecture defn.” or “writing still has its place.” so it seems the initial tweet was intentionally provocative. I guess not too many people are interested in reading things like “At Google we are replacing some parts of writing and especially ones around wireframing or prototyping to vibe coding tools, but we are still finding value in documenting other parts of the product lifecycle like strategy or unit economics.