Templates · Strategy & planning
Amazon PR/FAQ (Working Backwards) template
For new products or features. Origin: Amazon's Working Backwards process; the press release is written before any code.
Sections
- Headline
- Subheading
- Summary
- Problem
- Solution
- Leader quote
- How it works
- Customer quote
- Call to action
- External FAQ
- Internal FAQ
How a tough reader scores it
When you score a draft against this format, the Critic evaluates this PR/FAQ. The weights add up to 100; the fixes for the weakest criteria arrive as cards in the editor.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Customer is specific and the problem is real and painful | 20 |
| Press release is in plain customer language, readable by a non-employee | 15 |
| Benefit is concrete and differentiated from today's alternatives | 15 |
| Customer quote sounds like a real person, not marketing | 5 |
| External FAQ answers what a buyer would actually ask | 10 |
| Internal FAQ confronts economics, feasibility, and biggest risks honestly | 20 |
| Clear scope and non-goals | 10 |
| Would a skeptical exec want to fund this after reading? | 5 |
How it works in SecondPen.ai
Open the template and the editor writes the blank once, with a line of guidance under each heading that you delete as you fill it in. Write your abstract and the editor names the format it reads like. Ask for a document with a slash command and it offers to start from the matching format. When the draft is ready, the Critic scores it against the criteria above, the way this format's toughest reader would, and the three highest-leverage fixes become Editor cards.
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