It also helps with more rapid iteration and keeps the team on track.” If the team can’t come up with a compelling press release, the product probably isn’t worth making. They need to fully understand what the product’s value proposition will be and how it will be pitched to customers.
“Amazon uses this ‘working backwards’ approach because it forces the team to get the most difficult discussions out of the way early. They begin with asking themselves what the customer wants, how will the customer feel, and will it improve the customer experience? If the answers to these questions are positive, there’s something there, if not, something has to change before moving forward.Īmazon Web Services SVP, Andy Jassy says: It’s important to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his executive teams that the company doesn’t just develop products and features and hope that the customers will like them their entire focus is to work backward when in development for any new advance that involves the customer. If the team doesn’t get excited when reading the mock-up press release, they often go back to the drawing board. What Amazon aims for is complete customer obsession, so the development team for any new product is always keyed in on how the customer will feel about the product. The idea is to focus on how the customer will feel and react to hearing about the new product or feature that is in discussion. When Amazon begins the process of developing a new product or website feature, the project manager in charge starts the venture off by writing a mock-up press release announcing the finished product - this press release is geared towards the customer, just as any real press release would be.