User requirements describe the tasks and goals the user wants to achieve with the system — this is the user's perspective and their expectations. Functional requirements formalize what exactly the system must do to fulfill these needs, i.e., they describe specific functions, processes, and system behavior. User requirements answer the question "why", while functional requirements answer "what" and "how". For example, a user requirement is "the user should be able to search for products", and a functional requirement is "implement product search by name and category".