Originally, I had published this article on LinkedIn in 2024 to describe how we think about famous PRFAQ document. A PRFAQ in Amazon, is a combination of a vision and business case for an investment. Reproducing some of the text for simplicity.
Here are some tips and tricks that are sometimes hidden.
* Catchy 1-liner: write this at the last. Anyone who doesn't know your space should understand it.* Date, Location: realistic future date when the product will be released in production. Location represents if the release is limited to a geography at first.
1. Elevator Pitch: write this paragraph second last. You have 5-10 seconds of attention. Make the contrast between what-is and what will be as big as possible.
2. Current Problem: this paragraph is where the customer workback analysis goes. Who has the problem, how many such customers exists, what is the KPIs current baseline? What happens if you do not solve this problem in the next fiscal year? Your readers must nod yes and agree it the right problem to solve by end of this paragraph.
3. Day in Life (vision): explain the proposed user experience when your vision is realized. Paint the picture to generate an emotional response. If you are readers are not excited and say, "we need it", by the end of this paragraph you need to rework 2 and 3.
4. Customer Quote: this should be real feedback from your beta customers based on 2 and 3. They are making a commitment that if you build it, they will use it. If you don’t have it, build your Go-To Market strategy first, validate 2 and 3 with real customers. It shows your adoption strategy.
5. Executive Feedback: This is a commitment from your business sponsors that they will fund the product so you can get alignment with your partner teams on external dependencies.
6. Release Mechanism: proposed release mechanism and operational readiness. Where will you land your product? How will your users access the product (URL?)
The PR is deliberately set as a single page, packaging all the analysis and discussions into a crisp content. This is not a writing exercise; it is a strategic doc showing months of deep dives, customer validations, and analysis. Rest of the details go into FAQs for customers and internal stakeholders (next few posts).
#productmanagement #productvision #productleadership #businesscase #amazonculture #customerobsession #workingbackwards #amazonprfaq #productdesign
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