Open-source product playbook

Explore

Go to market

Start with the customer, then work backwards

How the PR/FAQ helped Amazon launch products like AWS, Kindle, and Prime Video.

Colin Bryar

SiNing Chan

⭐ Challenge: Building products customers actually need.

When launching products, it often feels like customers have become an add-on to the product instead of the product serving the needs of the customer. Well-meaning, industrious product teams perform market research, user research, build personas, creates user stories. Timelines are set. Engineers start diving deep into product development. Agile teams ruthlessly triage and put in extra hours to hit their deadlines. Shortly before the launch, sales, marketing, and support teams scramble to produce the messaging, campaign assets, and support articles necessary for a successful launch. The MVP launches. The team holds a launch party. As the usage data arrives, it becomes clear that the project’s objectives will not be met.

Product market fit. It is one of the top goals for software companies. Why is it so elusive?

At Amazon, we asked that same question. Once Jeff Bezos vocalized the reason, it was obvious. We were neglecting the most important person: the customer. So, we set out to create a process that ensures the customer is at the center of what we do and will guide us. Not the company. Not the process. Not our competitors.

⭐ Key insight: Working backwards before moving forward.

Most of Amazon’s major products and initiatives since 2004 have one very Amazonian thing in common. They were created through a process called working backwards: a process to vet ideas and create products or services that delight customers.

Its key tenet is to start by defining the customer need, then iteratively work backwards from that point until the team achieves clarity of thought and gains conviction that the product they are building addresses an explicit set of customer needs. Since the customer is not in the room for most of the product development process, working backwards is designed to keep the customer top of mind throughout the journey. The artifact working backwards employs is a narrative document called the PR/FAQ.

💡 Go slow to move fast.

To the uninitiated, working backwards can be frustrating due to repeatedly having to write and review PR/FAQ documents before writing code.

This is not a defect of working backwards, it’s a feature. The working backwards process forces you to slow down until you are aligned on a few things. The first step is to write a one-page press release that defines, in unambiguous terms, the problem you are solving for customers, the solution you are proposing, and why customers will care.

Next the team needs to write the FAQ which must ask and answer the tough questions customers will ask when evaluating whether the product meets their needs. It’s also where the tough internal questions are asked and answered, such as, “Is this solution feasible given our constraints?” and “Is the total addressable market big enough to warrant our investment in this area?”

You iterate on the PR/FAQ until you can assert the following:

This a customer problem worth solving.

Our proposed solution is feasible and will solve this specific set of customer needs.

If we’re right, it will deliver meaningful business results over time.

The “you” in the statement above includes all the teams involved in initiative plus the senior leaders who are funding it.

To gain this conviction, you need to immerse yourself in the customer experience. To make this assertion, you need to stick your neck out and publicly commit to a point of view. Given the ambiguity inherent in with invention with speed, you will not always be right. But at Amazon we found that the working backwards process has increased our odds of success.

Agreeing on direction is the oft-overlooked component velocity. We have found that this stage typically maximizes velocity by first making sure the direction is correct.

For example, AWS was one the first business units to adopt the working backwards process at Amazon for all of its services such as S3 and EC2. By slowing down to achieve clarity of thought on the customer problems to be solved and defining what solutions to address those customer needs, AWS was able to quickly grow into a business generating tens of billions of annual revenue. Amazon’s 2015

Letter to Shareholders⁠

mentions that AWS “was bigger than Amazon.com was at 10 years old (and) growing at a faster rate.”

💡Be customer obsessed.

This obsession on customers forces everyone to understand the customer experience at a very deep level. Also, as you relentlessly discover and follow customer needs, it can take you places you didn't anticipate. A skills-forward approach does not do this.

Amazon’s 2015

Letter to Shareholders⁠

mentions how most big technology companies are competitor focused. These companies typically see what others are doing, then create a plan to launch a fast follow. In contrast, 95% of what Amazon builds in AWS (and other parts of the company) is driven by what customers tell them they want.

The future-looking press release (the ‘PR’ in Amazon’s 6-page PR/FAQ), is a narrative written to the customer, in a language a customer can understand. If you cannot write a compelling press release that makes a customer want to run out and buy your product or use your service, then you aren’t ready to start building yet.

You start with the customer and work backwards, rather than starting with the product and trying to bolt customers onto it.

Keep the customers top-of-mind by asking customer-focused questions at each stage of the product lifecycle:

⁠

Research & design⁠

What is the customer problem we are solving and what are the non-negotiable aspects of the solution?

⁠

Development⁠

Have we instrumented our services so we measure the customer experience at each stage of the customer journey?

⁠

Go to market⁠

Are we offering a delightful customer experience at every touchpoint and can we measure it?

⁠

Measure & iterate⁠

Measuring new signups, conversion, upsell, downsell, and churn are necessary but not nearly sufficient. Are we collecting data that will tell us the why behind each of these outputs (e.g. when did customer use it, when did they leave, how long did they stay, friction points)?

⁠

⭐ Solution: PR/FAQs

The PR/FAQ is short for ‘press release/frequently asked questions’. The PR/FAQ is written for the customer in a language a customer can understand. The process ensures that the customer is top of mind throughout the entire journey of turning an idea into a product or service for the company.

⁠

The Press Release is your elevator pitch to customers.

⁠

The FAQs page is the place where your customers and internal stakeholders who are funding your idea get to ask the tough questions you need to answer before moving to the next stage.

This helps you start with the customer and work backwards, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.

⁠

Get the template

⁠

PR/FAQ template Communicate and collaborate with stakeholders.⁠

⁠

Special thanks to:

⁠

Colin Bryar⁠

- Author, advisor

⁠

Colin is a former executive at Amazon who, together with Bill Carr, co-authored a book entitled, Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Together, Bill and Colin have a combined 27 years of Amazon experience. Colin Bryar served as a VP at Amazon and held various roles including Chief of Staff of Jeff Bezos and COO of IMDb.

⁠

Read Colin's full writeup on how PR/FAQs work⁠

or go to

www.workingbackwards.com⁠

to learn more.

Gallery

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.