You may have heard or read somewhere that Amazon, Google, and Apple, among other companies, all use something called the Working Backwards method when they undertake to launch a product, a project, a program, or anything that requires a team of people to deliver.  That is, they start from envisioning clearly the end result and then work backwards from there to figure out where to start and how to move from there to that envisioned end. The method is meant to be both an exercise in creating clarity and a process at the end of which a concrete document is delivered by the document owner — in the case where the deliverable is a product, the product manager — to a team of stakeholders and that will serve that team as a guiding, go-to source to answer all questions that they may have about the product.

At Amazon, where I worked as a member of the Amazon Alexa team, we used what is called there a PR-FAQ: PR for Press Release, and FAQ for Frequently Asked questions. The PR-FAQ document then consists of two sections: (1) An actual press release describing in clear, lay terms that anyone can read and understand, and that focuses on mainly the value but also on the key features that enable the delivery of that value, and (2) An FAQ: a list of questions and answers covering all aspects of the product. (A measure of how successful an initial PR-FAQ is can be measured by comparing the PR-FAQ’s press release and the actual press release that was used to launch the product. If the two are very similar, then it means that the initial vision was right on target. (The press release of the Amazon Echo, for instance, was almost identical to the press release that was envisioned years before its release when the product’s PR-FAQ was written by its product manager.)

Since I left Amazon to launch and build my current company, Witlingo, I’ve used the PR-FAQ tool innumerable times for not only our sonic product launches, but also for practically everything one can think of, including launching events, delivering on client projects, setting up internal engineering processes, and establishing partnerships. I have used it so often now that I cannot imagine undertaking any initiative without first sitting down and investing the time and effort to write it. (It usually takes two to three weeks to complete a PR-FAQ from start to finish, and usually I end up with six to seven pages.)

What I have found surprising, however, is that most organizations out there actually do not use a Working Backwards method. Instead of starting from the end, they start, reasonably enough, from the beginning: This is where we are, these are the resources that we have, these are the constraints that exist on our organization, and this is the list of things that we want to do. Let’s put together a roadmap that we think we can deliver and let’s start working on the features.

But whenever I’ve mentioned the PR-FAQ methodology to various partners and fellow travelers in the Sonic world where I dwell and operate, the reaction has been almost always a variation along the following lines: Initially, they ask, “What does that mean?” and after I explain it to them and they think about it a little, a light bulb goes off and they get excited. “Yes, of course.  I want to try this. This sounds like fun.”

And it is fun, actually, because reaching clarity, while tough and requires hard work and patience, is something that is gratifying and powerful once completed.

In an effort to spread the word in a more scalable way than randomly, one potential convert at a time, below I share nine tips on what I believe it takes to deliver a great PR-FAQ.

1. Write everything out in full sentences
Use words, and only words, and make sure that every single word is part of a full sentence. No matter how tempting, do not use images, or videos, or  audio, charts or graphs: Use only words. And not only words, but full sentences, which means, no bullet points  (unless each bullet point is a full sentence). You may use whatever you want in appendices that contain supplementary material to the PR-FAQ, but every single question in your FAQ needs to have an answer that completely answers the question in words only.

2. Your press release needs to be crystal clear
Here’s what your press release needs to do: (1) It needs to describe the product or the service in terms that the general public can understand: (a) the value that is being delivered to the market and (b) the features that deliver that value; (2) It provides two quotes (they can be made up) that a typical user of the product you are launching may say when interviewed about the product; (3) It provides a quote from an executive from the company that is deploying the product or service; (4) If there are partners, it should have quote from them explaining their role; and (5) It ends with a sentence or two about next steps along with information that is important for the reader to know (for instance, what language the product or service is available in; when the product will be available generally if the announcement is about a limited release, etc.).

3. Your answers are given in one or two paragraphs at most, and not much more
To deliver a potent FAQ, make sure you put in the effort to be as succinct as possible, but without being cryptic.

4. Answer the basic questions first
Start by answering the obvious questions: each of the questions being its own paragraph or two: (1) What is this? (2) Why are we doing it? (3) What’s the closest thing to what we are doing and how do we differentiate? (4) Why would someone buy what we are building and not the alternatives? (5) How large is the market? (6) How will we price this? (7) If the project succeeds, what would be the main reason it did? (8) If the project fails, what would be the main reason it did? If you provide clear answers to these questions, you are off to a great start.

5. Describe clearly the research you have done
Your PR-FAQ needs to be grounded in reality, so make sure that any claims of fact that you make are backed by solid data. Literally, you need a question in the FAQ that asks, “What sources have you used to obtain the data that you are using and how reliable are those sources?” If there is research that suggests evidence that may counter any hypothesis that you are putting forward, such evidence and the research behind it need to be called out and discussed. The last thing you want to do is suppress information that could easily help you avoid making bad decisions.

6. Be modest and cautious in your claims and statements
Avoid hyperbole at all costs. A good way of doing this is to kill as many adverbs as possible. Your PR-FAQ should not include words such as “extremely” or “very” “greatly”. Instead of writing, “We expect customers will find the feature really useful,” simply say, “We expect customers to find the feature useful.”

In addition to avoiding hyperbole, be self-reflexive and do not pretend to have final answers. The reader needs to feel through your tone that, while you are making the best possible case and that you feel that your case is strong, they must also sense that you are open to changing your mind if solid evidence is presented to you.

7. Make your document readable by everyone
Readability makes your document accessible to the many perspectives that you will need to ensure that when launched, your product will be at the very least minimally viable. A lawyer should be able to pick your PR-FAQ, read it, and understand it from end to end. The same for marketers, the billing folks, the sales team, quality engineers, software developers, investors, partners, the CEO, member of the customer care team — they should all be able to pick up the document, read it, and understand it from end to end. You want this because you want them to be able to give you feedback from their perspective: A billing person may point out that you have not covered at all how this new product will be billed for, while a lawyer may surface a bad assumption that you made and that would need to be addressed before any work starts.

To that end — to the end of making your document readable: (1) Avoid all jargon; (2) do not assume any expert prior knowledge; and (3) write in short, to-the-point sentences. Your aim is clarity: Repetition is just fine if the repetition creates clarity. Explicitly explaining what a pronoun is referring to is just fine if that explanation creates clarity.

8. List the functional requirements in terms of what the user can do
The functional requirements need to be nothing more (and nothing less) than a list of full sentences that all start with, “The user is able to….” Do not talk about how something is done; do not talk about the technology behind the scenes. The functional requirements talk only about one thing: The “What.” The “Why” should have been addressed in previous questions in the FAQ and the “How” will be addressed later in the detailed design and then after that in the engineering plan.

9. Describe the intended Minimal Viable Product (MVP) in detail 
What set of features will you start on initial launch? And what evidence do you have that this set of features is no smaller and no larger than exactly the set you need for launch? You can then determine what additional features need to be added, or what adjustments need to be made to your product so that the product’s viability is substantially enhanced and the product is placed on stable footing and on a path for scalable adoption.

Writing PR-FAQs requires patience, practice, and a lot of hard work. Your first PR-FAQ that you will write is going to be painful. You will feel that the requirement to write everything out in full sentences is unreasonable and that it’s OK to take short cuts. Resist that temptation. Writing full sentences is going to force you to write for the larger audience that you will need (members coming from all of the functions of your organization). Writing in full sentences will also check your natural impulse to elide your thoughts. But once you get the hang of it — usually after you have written half a dozen such PR-FAQs — you will simply not be able to work without them. And that’s a good thing.

Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, is CEO of Witlingo, a McLean, Virginia, based company that builds tools for publishing Sonic experiences, such as Alexa skills, Google actions, Bixby Capsules, Microcasts, and crowd-sourced audio streams. Prior to Witlingo, Dr. Bouzid was Head of Product at Amazon Alexa and VP of Product at Genesys. Dr. Bouzid holds 12 patents in Human Language Technology, is Ambassador at The Open Voice Network, Editor at The Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC), and was recognized as a “Speech Luminary” by Speech Technology Magazine and among the Top 11 Speech Technologists by Voicebot.ai.

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