Abhishek Singh

PRD USER AUTHENTICATION

4 min read

USER AUTHENTICATION – PRD: Part A – The Planning Phase

1. 🎯 Purpose: Why & Stakes

Why are you doing this project?

To provide a secure, flexible, and developer-friendly authentication system that supports verified user access across multiple login methods (email, magic link, and SSO), with verified email as the trust anchor.

What’s at stake?

  • Emotionally: Confidence and clarity for product direction; reduces doubt and distractions around basic user access
  • Practically: Enables gated access to the system, controls user state and security, avoids unverified users misusing the system
  • Financially: Builds the foundation for monetization and controlled access to features

What happens if you succeed?

  • All legitimate users can sign up and log in using their preferred method
  • The system remains secure and scalable
  • Engineering team avoids tech debt in the authentication layer

What happens if you fail?

  • Users experience friction or get blocked from onboarding
  • Security vulnerabilities may lead to abuse
  • Team loses trust in the core platform flow

What’s the cost of inaction?

  • No growth—users can’t join or return
  • Reputational risk if security is compromised
  • Delays across the rest of product development

2. 🏁 Goal: Clear & Measurable

What is the clear, measurable outcome?

Launch a production-ready authentication system supporting:

  • Email/Password + verification
  • Magic link sign-up
  • Google and GitHub SSO

How will you know it’s done?

  • Users can register/login via all flows
  • Verified email is enforced for all methods
  • Coverage with integration tests
  • Metrics tracking sign-ups per method

By when?

Deadline: June 30, 2025

What’s the risk that makes it meaningful?

  • SSO integrations may break if not handled correctly
  • Email verification and password flows require reliability and UX polish
  • Poor execution leads to trust and security issues

✅ Goal Checklist

  • Clarity (Build robust multi-method user auth system)
  • Measurability (All flows working, metrics logged)
  • Deadline (June 31, 2025)
  • Real risk of failure (security, broken onboarding)

3. ⏳ Time: Short/Long-Term

Short-Term Plan (2–12 weeks)

  • Build and test core email + password flow
  • Implement email verification & reset flow
  • Add magic link auth
  • Integrate Google & GitHub SSO

Long-Term Vision (3–12 months)

  • Add MFA and session management
  • Admin tools for user management
  • Analytics on user auth behavior
  • Role-based access control (RBAC)

Sprint/Milestone Timeline

Focus AreaDates
Email/password + verificationJune 15 – June 17
Magic link sign-upJune 17 – June 19
Google/GitHub SSO IntegrationJune 19 – June 22
Testing, edge cases, metricsJune 23 – June 26

4. 🧰 Tools: Apps & Mentors

  • Software stack/tools:

    • Backend: spring-boot
    • DB: PostgreSQL
    • Auth: JWT, OAuth2
    • Email: JAVA mail
    • Deployment: Pulumi
    • Tracking: PostHog or Mixpanel

  • Key people:

    • Abhishek : Dev
    • Diksha : Testing

  • Communication channels:

    • Slack for async updates
    • Weekly team syncs
    • GitHub for code + issues

5. 📌 Breakdown: Milestones & Order

🗂 Milestone 1 – Email Auth Flow

  • Description: Email/password login, email verification, and forgot/reset password
  • Due date: June 16, 2025
  • Dependencies: Email provider setup, DB schema, basic UI

🗂 Milestone 2 – Magic Link Sign-Up

  • Description: User can sign up and log in via magic link sent to email
  • Due date: June 19, 2025
  • Dependencies: Email sending, secure link generation, UI

🗂 Milestone 3 – Google/GitHub SSO

  • Description: Users can sign in via Google and GitHub OAuth, with verified email handling
  • Due date: July 22, 2025
  • Dependencies: OAuth credentials, callback URL routing, email verification logic

🗂 Milestone 4 – QA, Metrics, Security

  • Description: Test coverage, metrics integration, logging auth events, final polish
  • Due date: July 31, 2025
  • Dependencies: All auth flows implemented

Optional Visuals

  • Add Gantt chart (can export from Notion or Trello)
  • Add Kanban board (Trello/Linear suggested)
  • Add dependency map (e.g., for OAuth flows and email)

Would you like me to generate a Notion-ready version or export this as a markdown file for internal planning?

Graph View