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McAllister: Amazon's 'working backwards' method works without the PR/FAQ format

Ian McAllister · What it takes to become a top 1% PM | Ian McAllister (Uber, Amazon, Airbnb) · Nov 20, 2022 · at 50:51

Former Amazon Director Ian McAllister explains that the PR/FAQ format is merely a tool to cultivate problem-first product thinking rather than a mandatory requirement.

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“Teach that and write some posts about with templates and things like that, because it's a great way to start of like the press release has a paragraph about the problem. That's what you write, and then you write the solution paragraph, and then the customer quote. And then the fact, which is like, is there a legitimate plan to succeed? So if you don't have that muscle to work backwards already in your team, it's a great thing to try, but that's not the only mechanism that can do it. And eventually if you do it enough and you build that muscle to work backwards, you can do it in any number of formats, whether it's a something in a PRD or some other way. But the key is that you don't just, you don't think what we could build You think about the problem and then the solution that solves that problem.”

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