In everyday language, a "product" is something sold or manufactured. In PRINCE2, the word has a more precise meaning — and understanding it is fundamental to how the method approaches planning and control.
PRINCE2 defines a product as: "an input or output, whether tangible or intangible, that can be described in advance, created and tested."
That three-part test — describable, creatable, testable — is what makes something a product in PRINCE2. If you cannot describe what it will look like when finished, create it deliberately, and test whether it meets its description, it is not a PRINCE2 product.
Two Types of Product
PRINCE2 distinguishes between two categories of product:
Specialist Products
The outputs the project exists to create — the things the business will ultimately use or benefit from. These are what most people think of when they hear "deliverable": a new system, a trained workforce, a completed building, a revised process.
Specialist products are defined in Product Descriptions, quality-checked via the Quality Register, and handed over at project closure.
Management Products
The documents and records the project management team creates to plan, control, and communicate. These include the Project Brief, PID, Stage Plans, Highlight Reports, and Issue Register.
Management products enable the project to be governed — they are the governance layer, not the delivery layer. PRINCE2 provides recommended formats for all of them.
Why This Matters for Planning
PRINCE2 is explicitly product-based in its approach to planning. Rather than starting a plan by listing activities, PRINCE2 starts by identifying the products to be delivered. Activities are then derived from the question: "what do we need to do to create each product?"
This product-based planning approach keeps plans focused on outcomes rather than effort, and makes it much easier to define and check quality — because quality criteria are agreed before work begins, as part of the Product Description.
See the Plans Practice for how product-based planning works in practice, including the Product Breakdown Structure and Product Flow Diagram.