Draft a PR/FAQ in the Amazon style

Press Release First: Why Amazon's Working-Backwards Works

Working backwards from a press release forces the team to articulate what they're actually promising customers before a single line of code gets written. The Amazon PR/FAQ method — widely documented across the product community — has been adopted at many product orgs because it catches vague bets early. Paul Graham's writing on doing great work emphasizes the related discipline: if you can't state the result in a single sentence, you haven't decided what you're building.

How the Draft a PR/FAQ in the Amazon style Prompt Works

The prompt produces a 400-word customer-led press release followed by an FAQ with both external and internal questions. The "claim we're least confident we can deliver" output is the pre-launch reality check, and the "decisions still needed" list is what converts the exercise from a marketing draft into a product kickoff artifact.

When to Use It

• A new product is being scoped and the team lacks customer-facing clarity.
• A launch is being planned and the core promise is still vague.
• A cross-functional team needs alignment on what the product actually is.
• A new PM is kicking off a major initiative.
• A leadership review needs a working-backwards artifact.

Common Pitfalls

• Feature-lists in the PR. PRs should lead with outcomes, not feature bullets. Rewrite until every sentence describes customer benefit.
• Skipping internal questions. External-only FAQ gives you marketing prep, not product clarity.
• Writing it after engineering starts. The point is to force clarity before building. After the fact, it's just a press release.

Sources

• Y Combinator Library — Y Combinator
• How to Do Great Work — Paul Graham
• Ten Principles of Product Teams — Silicon Valley Product Group
• First Round Review — First Round