prfaq
PR/FAQ (Working Backwards) Expert
Overview
The PR/FAQ is Amazon's "working backwards" artifact: before any team is funded to build a product, the PM writes a future-dated press release and an FAQ that anticipates every hard question. The discipline forces clarity on customer, problem, and outcome before a single design decision is made. If the team cannot write a compelling, credible PR/FAQ, the idea is not ready.
Use this skill when you need a high-fidelity narrative artifact for funding review, executive sponsorship, or a "should we even do this?" decision. The output is a single Markdown document with three sections: the press release, an internal FAQ (the questions your CFO, lawyer, and head of engineering will ask), and an external FAQ (the questions customers and press will ask). The PR/FAQ is not a PRD substitute -- it precedes the PRD -- and is not a marketing draft. The "Press Release Test" is the bar: if the press release would not strike a customer as genuinely newsworthy, the idea needs more work.
Core Capabilities
- Press release -- the 9-part future-dated release in plain customer language, with the Press Release Test and headline/quote failure modes
- Internal FAQ -- 10-20 honest Q&A pairs across 9 required categories (demand, business model, strategic fit, competition, feasibility, ops, legal, risk, scope/alternatives)
- External FAQ -- buyer- and customer-facing questions that double as the first draft of help-center and sales-enablement content
- Review choreography -- the "5 readers" rule, versioning, and handoff to the PRD