Working Backwards (PR/FAQ)

A product development method pioneered at Amazon: start from the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. The centerpiece is the PR/FAQ document — a fictional press release and FAQ written before a single line of code, forcing clarity of thought about who benefits, why they care, and what could go wrong. Includes a built-in pre-mortem step based on Gary Klein's prospective hindsight technique.

Core Principle

If you can't write a compelling press release, you don't understand the product yet. Writing forces thinking. A PR/FAQ written at the start — not the end — of a project exposes fuzzy thinking, missing logic, and unjustified assumptions before any resources are committed. If the press release is boring, the product will be boring.

The Working Backwards process inverts the typical development flow:

Traditional:  Idea → Build → Launch → Explain to customers
Amazon:       Customer need → PR/FAQ → Debate → Build only if compelling

Scoring

Goal: 10/10. When reviewing a PR/FAQ or product proposal, rate it 0-10: