PRD: Shared Workspaces
Status: Draft | Author: Product Team | Last updated: 2026-06-24
Problem
Users who collaborate in teams — students, remote workers, small business owners — treat our note-taking app as a personal tool, then manually copy content into shared docs or messaging threads to collaborate. This creates version drift, duplicated effort, and lost context. We have no multi-user workspace primitive, so every collaborative use case is a workaround.
Goals
- Let users create shared workspaces where multiple members can view and edit notes in real time.
- Reduce friction for teams adopting the app as a primary knowledge hub (targeting a 30% increase in multi-device, multi-user session starts within 90 days of launch).
- Lay the foundation for permission controls, activity feeds, and team billing without over-building in v1.
Non-Goals
- Real-time rich-text co-editing with cursor presence (deferred to v2).
- External guest access (link-shared, unauthenticated viewers).
- Team admin / SSO / SCIM provisioning.
- In-app chat or comments threads.
User Stories
| # |
As a… |
I want to… |
So that… |
| 1 |
Team lead |
Create a workspace and invite teammates by email |
We share a single source of truth instead of scattered personal notes |
| 2 |
Contributor |
See which notes have been updated since I last opened the workspace |
I can catch up quickly without reading everything |
| 3 |
Member |
Move or copy one of my personal notes into a shared workspace |
I can surface relevant context for my team without starting over |
| 4 |
Workspace owner |
Remove a member and revoke their access immediately |
Sensitive notes stay protected when someone leaves the team |
Scope
In
- Workspace creation (name, description, icon).
- Email-based member invitations (owner, editor roles).
- Shared note list with last-modified timestamps and author attribution.
- Real-time read sync: all members see the latest saved version on open.
- Member removal and role changes by the owner.
- Workspace deletion (owner only, with confirmation prompt).
Out
- Simultaneous live editing / operational transforms.
- Granular per-note permissions.
- Guest / public sharing links.
- Mobile-native workspace creation (read and edit on mobile; creation limited to web/desktop v1).
Success Metrics
| Metric |
Baseline |
90-day Target |
| Workspaces created per week |
0 |
500 |
| Avg. members per workspace |
— |
≥ 3 |
| Weekly active workspace users / total paying users |
0% |
15% |
| Workspace churn (deleted within 7 days of creation) |
— |
< 10% |
| Support tickets related to collaboration |
— |
< 5% of total ticket volume |
Key Risks
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Sync conflicts when two users save simultaneously |
Medium |
High |
Last-write-wins with a visible "overwritten by" banner; flag for v2 OT |
| Permission bugs expose private notes to workspace members |
Low |
Critical |
Isolated data layer for personal vs. shared notes; mandatory security review before launch |
| Low invite acceptance degrades perceived value |
High |
Medium |
In-app prompt + email nudge with a 7-day reminder; track funnel drop-off |
| Workspace feature cannibalizes personal plan upgrades |
Low |
Medium |
Monitor upgrade conversion before and after launch; adjust pricing messaging if needed |