working-backwards

Included with Lifetime

$97 forever

Use when asked to "working backwards", "PR/FAQ", "Amazon PR/FAQ", "write a press release", "define a new product", or "write a customer-focused PRD". Helps define products by starting with the customer problem and desired outcome before building. The Working Backwards process (developed at Amazon) forces clarity on customer value before committing engineering resources.

Data & Analytics

What this skill does


## Domain Context

This skill implements a proven product management framework. The approach combines best practices from industry leaders and is designed for practical application in day-to-day PM work.

## Input Requirements

- Context about your product, feature, or problem
- Relevant data, research, or constraints (recommended but optional)
- Clear articulation of what you're trying to achieve


# Working Backwards

## What It Is

Working Backwards is Amazon's product development methodology. The core insight: **start with the customer problem and work backward to the solution, not the other way around.**

Most teams work forward: "We have this technology/capability/idea — what can we build with it?" Working Backwards inverts this: "What problem does the customer have? What would the ideal solution look like? Now, how do we build it?"

The mechanism: Write an internal press release and FAQ *before* building anything. If you can't write a compelling press release, you don't have a compelling product.

As Jeff Bezos put it: "We took it as an article of faith — if we served customers well, if we prioritized customers and delivered for them, things like sales, revenue, and free cash flow would follow."

## When to Use It

Use Working Backwards when you need to:

- **Define a new product or major feature** before committing resources
- **Evaluate competing product ideas** and choose which to build
- **Align stakeholders** on what you're building and why
- **Force clarity** on vague product concepts
- **Prevent building solutions in search of problems**
- **Create a shared vision** that engineering, design, and leadership can rally around
- **Decide whether an idea is worth pursuing** at all

## When Not to Use It

- The work is incremental optimization (A/B tests, bug fixes)
- You're executing on an already-defined product
- The scope is too small to warrant the overhead

## Resources

**Books:**
- *Working Backwards* by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar
- *The Everything Store* by Brad Stone

Files: 1

Size: 2.4 KB

Complexity: 8/100

Category: Data & Analytics

Source: https://github.com/pmprompt/claude-plugin-product-management/tree/main/skills/working-backwards

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