Cost Strategy

90% of AWS Is Born from Customer Feedback - Working Backwards and Customer-Driven Innovation

We explain how the Working Backwards process and the Customer Obsession principle shape AWS service development. Learn about the innovation mechanism that starts with PR/FAQ documents and the process for incorporating customer feedback.

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The Fact That 90% Comes from Customer Feedback

AWS releases new services and features every day, and approximately 90% of them are developed based on customer feedback. This figure has been explicitly stated on the official AWS blog. When customers say "I want this feature" or "This part is hard to use," those voices are directly reflected in the product development roadmap. The remaining roughly 10% consists of innovations that anticipate latent needs customers haven't yet articulated, developed by observing technology trends and industry developments. These innovations identify friction points in the customer journey and create new features that surprise and delight customers.

Working Backwards - A Development Process That Starts from the Customer

Supporting this customer-driven innovation is Amazon's unique Working Backwards process. In typical product development, teams start from technology or ideas and think about "what can we build." Working Backwards reverses this by starting from "what does the customer need" and designing the product backward from there. The process consists of five stages: Listen (hear the customer's voice), Define (define the problem to solve), Invent (invent the solution), Refine (polish it), and Test & Iterate (test and iterate). This process eliminates the risk of building something that is technically possible but not what customers want.

PR/FAQ - Writing the Press Release Before Development

At the core of Working Backwards is a method called PR/FAQ. Before starting development of a new service or feature, the team first writes the press release that would be issued when the service is complete, along with answers to questions (FAQ) that customers and internal stakeholders would likely ask. The press release describes the value to customers, the problems being solved, and specific usage scenarios. By creating this document before writing a single line of code and reviewing it within the team, projects with unclear customer value can be identified early. Projects whose PR/FAQ isn't compelling don't proceed to development, no matter how technically interesting they are. This mechanism is one reason why AWS services are aligned with real-world use cases. To broaden your knowledge of cost management, specialized books on Amazon can also be useful.

Customer Obsession as the Starting Point for Everything

AWS's customer-driven innovation is rooted in Customer Obsession, which is listed first among Amazon's Leadership Principles. The principle states: "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers." This principle is referenced in every aspect of hiring, evaluation, and decision-making, and is firmly established as organizational culture. Many of the new services announced at re:Invent are concrete solutions born from conversations with specific customers. The fact that announcements often include the story "We heard from customers about problem X, so we built service Y" reflects that this process actually takes place.

Summary

The fact that 90% of AWS services and features are born from customer feedback is made possible by the mechanisms of Customer Obsession and Working Backwards. PR/FAQ validates customer value before development, and the five-stage process designs products backward from the customer. The reason each service is aligned with real-world use cases despite offering over 200 services is that this customer-driven approach is deeply embedded as organizational culture.

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