Why Amazon continues to redefine landscapes at an unmatched pace — the PRFAQ

12 min readAug 8, 2019

At I/O 2017, Google execs claimed to have built a Google Home prototype in 2013. Why did it take that long to organize and launch and learn for a company famous for defining the Design Sprint and keeping its products in “Beta”? Did you even know that Amazon ventured into ticket sales or prescription drugs? Why has Amazon moved at the pace of startups and continued to diversify faster than any of the tech giants? Even in spite of its lower profit margins relative to the Advertising strongholds...

Many large and small companies carry the mantra of “fail fast,” but seldom do companies move fast enough to fail externally or to socialize a strategy internally.

Factors from company profit margins to the product category (e.g. healthcare and HIPAA) shape the Product culture that can restrict a company’s agility. However, I’ve leveraged an Amazon process that accelerates good Product thinking in spite of such restrictions — The Press Release and FAQ (Working Backwards) also affectionately known as the “6-pager” in extended formats.

As a product lead for secret projects, S-Team goals and applications of Amazon’s speech and computer vision capabilities, I authored many PRFAQs to illustrate visions and witnessed the process promote big thinking. However, few articles have shown how the process (with an example) accelerates both the author and company down a path, and often the right path with enough iterations on the PRFAQ. To highlight its effectiveness, I will simulate the PRFAQ being applied to Uber’s growth engine Uber Everything.

But, first, let’s quickly review the basics of the PRFAQ.

THE PRFAQ FORMAT AND CONTENT

In short, the PRFAQ’s Press Release is a quick brief that highlights the problem, the value prop and walk-through with some customer scenarios and use cases described via testimonials. An accompanying FAQ highlights (1) likely questions from the consumer to clarify relevance and (2) business case justification or program status to stakeholders. On the latter, the PRFAQ is intended to be a “living” document that is constantly updated not only to refine a concept, but also to reflect a team’s current progress.

Not one, but many PRFAQs. The most ambitious and strategic projects, often codified as S-Team goals, are represented as a spectrum of PRFAQs — long- and short-term visions along a decision tree of hypotheses. The series of visions is not to be confused with a roadmap since visions are just as easily broken as the hypotheses holding them up. However, the series itself measures the author’s conviction and foresight into the strategic importance.

More info here on the document structure:

Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels’ context on the PRFAQ framework
Former AWS PM Ian McAllister’s synopsis on the modern PRFAQ structure

Now, that we’ve covered the WHAT, let’s cover the HOW this leads to efficiency as we roleplay as Uber.

PRE-MEETING: AUTHORING

As an Uber PM, I will have already identified a significant opportunity for the company. Let’s presume that we’ve uncovered the platform data and built a larger hypothesis around the Travel category that says:

Hotels and Airlines are potentially strong partners for Uber since their customers frequently need rides and the demand is reasonably steady throughout the day
Many trips to/from hotels and airports originate in city centers where Uber car availability is high

A longer 6-pager PRFAQ will guide the reader to one particular solution (e.g. via vertical analysis, persona development, mind-mapping, prioritization) and I’ll omit this since the story’s focus is on the 1-pager PRFAQ. Again, let’s presume we arrive at a white-glove solution for luggage transport.

Focusing on the right problem

A chief issue for the PM when conceiving a solution is building the confidence that we are addressing the most relevant problem for the customer. Much wasted energy can go into designing solutions that don’t address real-life problems. The PRFAQ is a forcing function that lets the author take a quick gut-check at a specific pain-point:

Does this solution drive off a singular, deeply-felt problem? (for those affected by the problem and have a set of alternative solutions)
Is the problem easily conveyed to those unaffected or on-the-fringe (marginally impacted by the problem or need to be educated that such problem exists)?

Concise, specific problem statement. If your problem can’t be covered by ONE salient sentence then you might be generating false pain-points to shroud the absence of a single, real point-of-focus. Often, this is where firms already proceed down a path of poor product-market fit.

For Uber Everything Travel, let’s gravitate towards this pain-point:

According to a 2015 SITA survey, 31% of passengers experience negative emotions when collecting their bags, only second to waiting in Security (36%).

At second-glance, I might even question this sentiment-driven statement against more tangible statements, such as “50% of all travelers have either missed a business meeting or lost 8 hours in a destination-city due to baggage collection delays”. You can validate the pain-point via many research methodologies (included as Appendix to the PRFAQ) but the rest of the document shouldn’t be built unless you (and others) truly believe. With this singular focus, you can narrate a solution like the following within the PR:

Uber Launches UberTravel and Whiteglove Uber’s new B2C app delivers your baggage to your Hotel Room
SAN FRANCISCO December 1, 2016 Today Uber launched a new service, Uber Whiteglove, that will mark its first entry into the travel industry via an app, UberTravel. The company has started work with select Hotel and Airline partners to build a more seamless, delightful traveler experience.
“Travelers represent 15% of our business and we’re dedicated to solving the biggest pain points first, ” stated Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden. According to a 2015 SITA survey, 31% of passengers experience negative emotions when collecting their bags, only second to waiting in Security (36%). After a redeye or multileg flight, travelers have to navigate baggage carousels, wait an unknown amount of time, and then elbow through crowds to search for their bag among other similar looking bags. Finding that bag is often overshadowed by the effort to pull that 40 lb. bag through airport and hotel.
In addition, morning arrivals force the leisure travelers to make a detour to store the luggage at the hotel or pull that baggage around all morning. Business travelers often show up to the client’s office with carryon in hand. “For these parties, this is time and effort that could have been spent on enjoying the city or walking into a client presentation more fresh. They can be liberated and rejoin their bags when they need to in the hotel. Uber is the ideal partner to transport them reliably and quickly,” asserts Holden.
Building on Uber’s magical experience of tracking inbound shipments across UberEats and UberRush, Whiteglove will extend that same visual comfort that their luggage is being delivered correctly. According to SITA, 63% of travelers want this bag collection update. Uber also makes the setup process as easy as requesting an airport ride. After dropping off their bag at checkin, travelers can use the new app to scan their luggage tag, enter their hotel name, confirm or enter the name under the reservation all while walking to the gate. Upon arrival, travelers can use the new app to find realtime tracking status and manage that shipment, such as delivery changes because something needs to be immediately retrieved from a bag. Uber and its hotel and airline partners have delivered a tight integration that uses the luggage tag to identify and track, so all parties have the knowledge to triage any issues.
“Our guests’ comfort is paramount and baggage mishandling can set any traveler’s trip into disarray, but Uber is the trusted partner for parcel transport”, said Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta.
Whiteglove delivery fees start as low as $5 and leverage Uber’s federated network of UberPool and courier services. Holden reassures that people can expect more innovation to come through the new app which will help find relevance with a broader class of travelers. For more information on the Whiteglove service and how to download the app, visit uber.com/travel.

Two-day validation without visuals. Like other “404-tests” or faux product landing pages, the PR is a quick way to get concept validation but without elaborate design mock-ups or prototypes. Some might argue that particular customer personas ‘don’t read’ or ‘need to see a solution’ to understand willingness to use/buy. I’d counter argue that if the solution relies too much on UX differentiation then you’re likely not solving a deep-enough problem or have built a me-too solution or over complicated a solution beyond the MVP.

Now, we’ve distributed the above PR to 30 peers and friends, and got some strong, early directional signal. Let’s discuss how socializing the PRFAQ internally with stakeholders can accelerate buy-in.

PRE-MEETING: CONCEPT INTRODUCTION

In any project inception, you need to influence other stakeholders of your opportunity quickly. The company also needs to vet the best ideas objectively. Herein lies some interesting challenges:

Schedules never align

The more strategic the initiative, the wider the audience and the higher the leadership ranks needed for alignment. Good luck getting Dara to free-up 30 minutes for this presentation! Socializing this as a live-presentation will require a multiple presentations to different parties, roughly pushing us into weeks or months if the initiative doesn’t have top-down prioritization.

Influence immediately. As a PRFAQ, you can socialize the Whiteglove concept with a quick email attachment or link. Why not simply introduce the concept within the email itself? Perhaps you could, but the PRFAQ sets the expectations that it will be a quick read rather than a rambling email. Also, for reasons we will elaborate later, the “live-document” is ever evolving as it’s pressure cooked. This survives better as a cloud-hosted document.

Data should win but loses to Salesman theatrics

It’s hard to eliminate bias completely. The author’s track record might come into play. Previous failed attempts in the Uber Everything team might color expectations. However, the audience should detach themselves from the author and the presentation delivery to evaluate the concept as they would as a consumer and data-driven company.

Consistent, objective delivery. As a PRFAQ, not PowerPoint, the success of the message doesn’t rely on slide organization, fancy infographics, or the best emotive public speaker. The former often leading to more time spent creating the message than perfecting and delivering the message. Also, message delivery is more consistent as a read document than your well-being that morning (e.g. the number of coffees you’ve had).

Slides don’t capture it all

Presentations have styles ranging from sparse takeaways completely voiced-over to the dense read-ahead decks loaded with all of the talking points. No matter how many slide notes, it’s rare to see a deck flow fluidly as if the speaker was relating the original message.

Complete thoughts on paper. As a PRFAQ, we can create a concise narrative that captures the entire argument as it would flow from a conversation.

Let’s pursue the final leg of the document, the FAQ, and discuss how it covers all angles on our product and maintains our sanity in a meeting.

MEETING: FEEDBACK

After early buy-in, you’ve moved enough stakeholders to gather and get further details. PRFAQs are read silently amongst stakeholders in the first 15 minutes of any meeting, and questions/discussion commence afterwards. Why is there beauty in silence?

Unnecessary interruptions and tangents

The PM peer that interrupts you to ask a detailed question that is already answered in a later slide. The devil’s advocate in the room that raises a tangential argument and leads you down a rat hole. Sound familiar? It might seem annoying but it’s a necessary evil to build the best product. Placing a concept under a pressure cooker shouldn’t be discouraged, but rather controlled.

Promoting intellectual and constructive discussion. The FAQ and silent-reading enables your audience to get their answers without any disruption to your logical flow. Results vary based on your ability to anticipate stakeholder questions. With a diligent audience that can challenge you more, you get to avoid ‘low-hanging fruit’ Q&A already covered in the FAQ. Instead, readers get to build richer questions, pushing the concept further and faster.

Anticipating challenges to the concept

For the Uber Whiteglove concept, you can find some sample FAQs below that are for both external and internal customers.

Like the PR does to convince you why you should use it, there’s a logical flow in the FAQ that narrows down the argument of why you care about this initiative.

For the External FAQs, it might start at the top of the funnel — does this matter to me — and lead me to the nuances of un-happy paths in the UX — can I use this reliably.

External FAQs:
Which airlines and countries are participating in this program?
Who is responsible when my luggage is lost in the process of using Uber Whiteglove?
Can I get things from my luggage during a layover?

For Internal FAQs, you start with the ‘so-what?’ which might vary on company culture. B2B firms might prioritize hearing the fiscal impact whereas B2C might want to first establish how this is a differentiated experience. Ultimately, the Internal FAQs move through the definition of success and land in information for counterparts (e.g. go-to-market details).

Internal FAQs:
How different is this from other existing luggage porting services?
Which airline and hotel partners should we prioritize? and why?
What does success look like for Uber Whiteglove?
What is the projected business impact of Uber Whiteglove?
What is the strategic impact of Uber Whiteglove?
What are the biggest risks to the execution of this capability?
What are Uber’s technology investments that support and benefit this engagement?
Should other business units develop tie-ins to the Travel-centric experience right now?
Why are we building this as a separate app instead of integrating it into the flagship Uber Rider app?

We leave the productive meeting with further research to conduct and consider, or an agreement to move forward.

POST-MEETING: STATUS

Relief! We got through our first meeting with the Product VP of Uber Everything, the lead of the Rider App and head of Business Development, but we will be asked to present many more times. New full time employees on your team. The Marketing and Sales teams. The interns. Your Tiger Mom.

Onboarded and contributing in a day. Rather than re-present the Overview live, you simply send the link to your document and get the baseline clarification out of the way. We quickly move the working group and collaborators to understand what-to-do-tomorrow based on the current project maturity and needs. To that end, you’ll include additional status Internal FAQs like the following:

What are the dependencies to this initial effort?
Has legal, risk and regulatory reviewed this concept? What are the related exposures?

One year later, you’ve spawned multiple experiments from other follow-on PRFAQs that yield insightful learnings. You’ve also contained historical, collective-thinking within a single document.

SUMMARY: WHY IS THIS BETTER?

In short, you bring the team and stakeholders to an objective conclusion faster and spawn richer discussion in the process.

Concept Ideation:

Author/inventor breaks free from an incremental mindset (“I’ll build based on our current tech stack”) and starts from an ideal consumer solution (“Voice is optimal for this interaction, let’s buy a voice transcription company”), thinking bigger
Authors execute a gut-check as they write the PR and understand whether the projected pain-point feels like a stretch and doesn’t have the supportive evidence
PRs that can’t be understood easily and quickly can indicate that the solution is not elegant/simple enough, the pain point is not relevant, and potential marketing friction

Distribution Efficiency:

Easier to distribute a written idea when executive schedules don’t align for an oral presentation
PRs take the “Salesman Effect” bias out of the pitch and makes the sell focus on the data
Allows all thoughts to be conveyed on paper and concisely when slides don’t capture every detail
Eliminates the person that derails the meeting with a question only to find information that is already presented later in the deck
New teammate joins and wants an overview and only needs to come back to the living document, the PRFAQ

Enjoyed the example and want to see an authentic “6-pager”?
Curious about how you build a PRFAQ for two-customer audience (e.g. marketplace)?
Interested on who should write the initial PRFAQ and how the rest of the team collaborates on its refinement?
Want to understand what types of Product Development/company cultures would resist “Silent Meetings” and this Working Backwards process?
Can I apply this structure to an opportunity-driven (contrary to problem-driven) product?

Please send me your feedback and applause to let me know you’re interested.

This is my first Medium story(of many, I hope).