Question 1

What is the Working Backwards method?

Accepted Answer

A product development method centered on writing a mock press release and FAQ document before any building begins, starting from the customer experience and working backward to determine what should actually be built.

Question 2

When was Working Backwards first used, and when did it become publicly known?

Accepted Answer

Amazon used the practice internally starting in 2004, but it only became widely known outside the company in 2012, when Ian McAllister described the methodology in detail in a public Quora answer.

Question 3

Why does writing a press release before building anything work as a forcing function?

Accepted Answer

Because the format itself excludes competitor comparisons, internal politics, and technical justification, forcing the writer to answer directly why a genuine customer would actually want the product.

Question 4

What is Ian McAllister’s famous rule of thumb about this method?

Accepted Answer

“If the press release is hard to write, then the product is probably going to suck,” meaning genuine difficulty writing a compelling version is itself meaningful evidence the idea may lack real customer value.

Question 5

What does a genuine PR/FAQ typically include?

Accepted Answer

A statement of the customer problem, an explanation of the solution, a company quote on why the product was built, an illustrative customer quote, and a call to action, kept to roughly half a page or less.

Question 6

What is the “so what?” test?

Accepted Answer

A common evaluative question asked during internal review, checking whether the described product is meaningfully better, faster, easier, or cheaper than existing alternatives, or represents a genuine improvement in customer experience.

Question 7

What is a well-documented real example of this method in practice?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Web Services, where Bezos and Andy Jassy identified web services as essential in 2004 but spent more than a year iterating on PR/FAQs before launching the foundational S3 and EC2 services in 2006.

Question 8

Is it a failure if a PR/FAQ never gets built?

Accepted Answer

No. Advocates treat this as the process working as intended, since discovering an idea does not hold up before committing real engineering resources is precisely the value the method is designed to provide.

Question 9

What is a fair criticism of the Working Backwards method?

Accepted Answer

That it requires real, sometimes substantial upfront time investment, and teams favoring a leaner MVP or riskiest-assumption-testing approach may surface genuine customer signal faster in certain situations.

Question 10

Should the Working Backwards method be used for every product decision?

Accepted Answer

No. Applying this level of upfront documentation to low-stakes, easily reversible decisions adds real overhead disproportionate to the actual risk involved.

What Is the Working Backwards (Press Release) Method?

Learn better with active recall quiz

Q1: What is the Working Backwards method?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Working Backwards method?

When was Working Backwards first used, and when did it become publicly known?

Why does writing a press release before building anything work as a forcing function?

What is Ian McAllister’s famous rule of thumb about this method?

What does a genuine PR/FAQ typically include?

What is the “so what?” test?

What is a well-documented real example of this method in practice?

Is it a failure if a PR/FAQ never gets built?

What is a fair criticism of the Working Backwards method?

Should the Working Backwards method be used for every product decision?

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What Is the Working Backwards (Press Release) Method?

Learn better with active recall quiz

Q1: What is the Working Backwards method?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Working Backwards method?

When was Working Backwards first used, and when did it become publicly known?

Why does writing a press release before building anything work as a forcing function?

What is Ian McAllister’s famous rule of thumb about this method?

What does a genuine PR/FAQ typically include?

What is the “so what?” test?

What is a well-documented real example of this method in practice?

Is it a failure if a PR/FAQ never gets built?

What is a fair criticism of the Working Backwards method?

Should the Working Backwards method be used for every product decision?

Found this useful? You might enjoy this as well

Epic vs. Feature vs. Story: What’s the Difference?

What Is UX Writing (Microcopy)?

What Is a Product Council? When Do You Need One?