Working backwards: Amazon’s product development
I like this strategy for assessing new product ideas at Amazon.
There is an approach called “working backwards” that is widely used at Amazon. We try to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it. [...] For new initiatives a product manager typically starts by writing an internal press release announcing the finished product. [...] If the benefits listed don’t sound very interesting or exciting to customers, then perhaps they’re not (and shouldn’t be built). Instead, the product manager should keep iterating on the press release until they’ve come up with benefits that actually sound like benefits. Iterating on a press release is a lot less expensive than iterating on the product itself (and quicker!).
Werner Vogels wrote about this in 2006 and detailed out a few points:
- Start by writing the press release
- Write a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document
- Define the customer experience
- Write the User Manual
He said:
The Working Backwards product definition process is all about fleshing out the concept and achieving clarity of thought about what we will ultimately go off and build. [...] Once we have gone through the process of creating the press release, faq, mockups, and user manuals, it is amazing how much clearer it is what you are planning to build.
A little more reading on the Working Backwards concept can be found at this article on shmula.com.
Posted: October 25th, 2010Filed under: Customers, Development, Innovation Tags: amazon, strategy | No Comments »
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