Auto Mode vs. My Own Plan: Which One Should You Use

Two Modes, Two Situations

The Free PRD Generator offers two ways to create a PRD. They are not different difficulty levels or different quality tiers — they are designed for fundamentally different moments in the product thinking process. Choosing the right one saves you time and produces a better document.

Auto Mode is for the moment right after inspiration strikes. My Own Plan is for when you have already done the thinking and just need it turned into a structured document. Here is how to decide.

Auto Mode: When You Have an Idea, Not Yet a Spec

You give Auto Mode two things: your product's name, and a short, plain-language description of what you are picturing. That is it. A sentence or two is enough. The tool takes that rough input and produces a complete structured PRD.

From your description, Auto Mode generates:

• Mission and vision inferred from what you described
• Problem statement and target users it implies
• Prioritized feature list with rationale
• "Considered, not included" — things the tool thought about but decided were out of scope
• Suggested goals and success metrics
• A starting color palette and visual direction
• Risks and open questions worth thinking about

The key word is inferred. Auto Mode makes educated guesses about your product based on what you described. Anything inferred is clearly marked, so you always know what is yours and what is a suggestion worth double-checking.

This mode is built for speed and discovery. It helps you move from a half-formed idea to a structured document in minutes. The output is not final — it is a starting point that you refine, edit, and reshape until it matches your actual product vision.

When to Use Auto Mode

• Early ideation. You have a concept but have not thought through all the details. Auto Mode surfaces questions you might not have considered.
• Exploring feasibility. You want to see what a structured version of your idea looks like before committing to building it.
• Getting unstuck. The blank page is the biggest enemy of documentation. Auto Mode fills the page so you have something to edit instead of nothing to start with.
• Quick validation. You want to test whether your idea has enough substance to warrant a full PRD, or whether it needs more thinking first.

My Own Plan: When You Already Know What You Are Building

Instead of a couple of sentences, you bring the details: product name, the features you want, the screens or flows you are picturing, custom instructions, and your preferred color palette. This mode does not guess — it takes what you give it and organizes it into a properly formatted PRD, filling only the genuine structural gaps rather than inventing content you did not ask for.

This mode is for the person who has already done the thinking. You know your target users. You know your feature set. You know what screens you need. You have possibly already discussed the product with your team, sketched wireframes on a whiteboard, or written rough notes in a document.

What you need is not suggestions — you need structure. My Own Plan takes your existing knowledge and formats it into a proper PRD with clear sections, numbered requirements, and the organizational discipline that makes the document useful to engineers, designers, and stakeholders.

When to Use My Own Plan

• You have a detailed feature list. You know what the product must do, and you need it organized into a proper document.
• You are writing for a specific audience. A developer, a client, or a co-founder is waiting for a spec. You need it to be precise.
• You have custom requirements. Specific screens, user flows, technical constraints, or design preferences that Auto Mode would not know about.
• You want control over the output. Every section should reflect your decisions, not inferences. My Own Plan respects that.

Can You Start with Auto Mode and Switch?

Absolutely. Many users start with Auto Mode to get a first draft, then switch to My Own Plan for the next project once they understand what a PRD should contain. Auto Mode is also useful for exploring edge cases: generate a PRD with Auto Mode, see what the tool infers, and use those inferences as a checklist for what to include in your next manual PRD.

The two modes are not mutually exclusive. They serve different stages of the product thinking process. Use whichever one matches where you are right now.

The Output Is Yours Either Way

Whichever mode you use, the generated PRD is a starting point, not a finished decision. Edit it. Reshape it. Add sections that matter to your product. Remove sections that do not apply. The tool is built to be honest about what it inferred versus what you told it directly, and to never invent specific facts — dates, metrics, names — you did not provide.

Good product thinking still has to come from you. This tool's job is to remove the blank-page friction between having that thinking and having it written down properly.

A Quick Decision Guide