Practicing Working Backwards - How to Write a PR/FAQ and the Amazon Product Development Process
A detailed look at the Working Backwards process created by Amazon, including PR/FAQ document structure and writing techniques, how it differs from the 6-Pager, and how to adopt it in your own projects.
What Is Working Backwards?
Working Backwards is a product development process established by Amazon in the early 2000s. Rather than starting from technology or business considerations, it begins by defining the ideal customer experience and works backward to determine what should be built. Born under Jeff Bezos's leadership, it was designed as a mechanism to maintain innovation quality even at scale. At the core of this process is a document called the PR/FAQ. Before writing a single line of code, you write the press release that would be issued when the product launches, along with anticipated FAQs, to validate whether the product truly delivers value to customers.
PR/FAQ Structure and Writing Techniques
The PR (Press Release) consists of six elements: (1) Headline: Express the customer value in a single sentence. (2) Sub-headline: Supplement with the target customer and key benefits. (3) Problem paragraph: Describe the specific problem customers currently face. (4) Solution paragraph: Explain how this product solves that problem. (5) Customer quote: Write a fictional customer endorsement that expresses value from the customer's perspective. (6) Getting started: Show the specific action customers can take right now. The FAQ has two parts: External FAQ and Internal FAQ. The External FAQ answers customer-perspective questions (usage, pricing, limitations, differences from existing services). The Internal FAQ answers internal stakeholder questions (technical feasibility, development cost, revenue model, risks).
Narrative Culture and When to Use 6-Pagers
At Amazon, meetings do not use PowerPoint - they use narrative (prose) documents instead. Bullet-point slides can hide logical gaps and ambiguity, whereas writing in prose forces authors to deepen their thinking and enables readers to accurately evaluate logical consistency. Meetings begin with all participants silently reading the document, ensuring everyone starts the discussion with the same information. PR/FAQ and 6-Pager serve different purposes. PR/FAQ is used for proposing new products or services - it is a document for validating the value of something that does not yet exist. The 6-Pager is used for analyzing existing problems, strategic proposals, and annual planning - understanding the current state and making directional decisions. Both have a maximum six-page constraint, which serves as a discipline for distilling information to its essentials.
Application to AWS Services
Many of AWS's major services were developed through the Working Backwards process. For example, S3 was designed by working backward from the customer experience of "developers being able to use scalable storage with a single API." Lambda was born from the customer desire to "run code without managing any servers." This process applies not only to new services but also to feature additions for existing services. Customer requests are organized in PR/FAQ format and reviewed within the team to determine whether a feature truly delivers customer value before development begins. Proposals whose PR/FAQ lacks persuasive power do not proceed to development, no matter how technically interesting they may be. To broaden your knowledge of product development, specialized books on Amazon can be a helpful resource.
Adopting It in Your Own Projects
Working Backwards is not unique to Amazon - any organization can adopt it. The first step is to write a PR/FAQ for the next feature or service you plan to develop. If you cannot summarize the customer value in a single headline, the project's purpose may be unclear. If you cannot concretely describe the customer's problem in the problem paragraph, your customer understanding is insufficient. If you cannot answer questions about technical feasibility or cost in the FAQ, your analysis is incomplete. The act of writing a PR/FAQ itself becomes a critical thinking process that influences project success. Once you establish a culture of silent reading and feedback across the team, you can significantly reduce rework after development begins.
Summary
Working Backwards is Amazon's product development process that designs products by working backward from the customer experience. It documents hypotheses in press release format through PR/FAQ and refines ideas through deep discussion within a narrative culture. By adopting this methodology - proven through the development of AWS services - in your own projects, you can achieve customer-centric product development.