# The PR-FAQ Template **Amazon's Working Backwards method, adapted for AI-native product development** *Part of the MxP Studio spec-driven development kit* --- ## What is a PR-FAQ? Amazon invented the PR-FAQ (Press Release + Frequently Asked Questions) as a forcing function for product thinking. Before any team writes a line of code, they write a press release as if the product had already shipped — describing it from the customer's perspective, not the builder's. The FAQ section answers the hardest questions your team and your customers would ask. If you can't answer them before building, you're not ready. It sounds simple. It's actually brutal. Most ideas fall apart when you try to write the customer quote. That's the point. In AI-native development, the PR-FAQ is even more valuable — because the tool will happily generate whatever you describe. If your description is vague, your prototype will be vague. Spec-driven development starts here. --- ## The template Copy this into a doc. Fill in every section. Don't skip the parts that feel hard — those are the parts that matter. ``` ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ PRESS RELEASE ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ HEADLINE [One sentence. What did you just launch? Use present tense, as if the product exists today. Write it for a journalist, not a VP.] Example: "MxP Studio Launches Spec Coach, a Free Tool That Turns Product Ideas into Buildable Specs in Under 10 Minutes." ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SUBHEADLINE [One sentence. Expand the headline with one specific outcome or benefit. Concrete language, not marketing speak.] Example: "Spec Coach helps non-engineers generate production-ready requirements documents using the Working Backwards method and EARS notation." ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── PROBLEM PARAGRAPH [3-4 sentences. Describe the customer's pain before your product existed. Be specific about who feels it and what they currently do to cope.] Example: "Most product managers know what they want to build but can't translate the idea into something engineers or AI tools can execute on. Traditional PRDs are too heavy; napkin sketches are too light. The result: great ideas stall in translation, and the cost of prototyping remains artificially high for anyone who can't code." ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SOLUTION PARAGRAPH [3-4 sentences. How your product solves the problem. Be concrete about the mechanics, not abstract about the vision.] Example: "Spec Coach guides users through a three-step flow: write a one-paragraph press release, answer five clarifying questions, and receive a complete spec with user stories, EARS criteria, and a suggested architecture. The entire flow takes 5-10 minutes, and the output is ready to paste directly into any AI coding tool." ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CUSTOMER QUOTE [2-3 sentences. A real person saying what they couldn't do before, and what they can do now. Use a realistic name and role. No superlatives. No "game-changer." Just the outcome.] Example: "'I had an idea for an internal onboarding tool for three months before I touched Spec Coach,' said Maya Chen, Product Manager at Velocity Labs. 'I ran it through Spec Coach on a Tuesday afternoon and had a working prototype by Wednesday morning. The spec gave me the structure I'd been missing.'" ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── LEADER QUOTE [2-3 sentences. A quote from you or a leader on your team, explaining why you built this. Connect it to the customer problem — not the technology.] Example: "'We kept watching people with great ideas get stuck at the same step — turning the idea into something buildable,' said AJ Bubb, Founder of MxP Studio. 'Spec Coach removes that step for everyone who doesn't live in an IDE. That's most people with good product ideas.'" ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CALL TO ACTION [1-2 sentences. How they get started. Make it concrete.] Example: "Spec Coach is available free at mxp.studio/spec-coach. New users can generate their first spec in under 5 minutes." ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ INTERNAL FAQ ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ These are the questions your team should be able to answer before you build anything. If you can't answer them, you're not ready. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1. WHO IS THE CUSTOMER, SPECIFICALLY? [Not "everyone who builds products." A specific person with a specific job and a specific pain.] 2. WHAT IS THE DURABLE NEED? [The thing that would still be true in 10 years. Not the solution trend — the underlying need.] 3. WHAT HAPPENS IF WE DON'T BUILD THIS? [Is this a must-have or a nice-to-have? Would the customer hire a competitor? Build it themselves? Live with it?] 4. WHAT WILL WE *NOT* BUILD? [Scope discipline. What are we explicitly choosing to leave out of v1, and why?] 5. HOW WILL WE KNOW IT'S WORKING? [One or two concrete success metrics. Usage, retention, referral, outcome. Pick what matters.] 6. WHAT'S THE RISKIEST ASSUMPTION? [The thing that, if wrong, kills the product. Name it plainly. This becomes the first thing you test.] 7. WHY NOW? [What changed in the world (tech, market, behavior) that makes this the right time to build this?] ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ EXTERNAL FAQ ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ These are the questions a customer would ask in their first 30 seconds of reading the press release. Answer them directly and concretely. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1. HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM [OBVIOUS ALTERNATIVE]? [Compare to the thing the customer is already using, not to an idealized competitor. Be specific about the difference that matters.] 2. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? [Including "free" as an answer. Clarity over cleverness.] 3. DO I NEED TO BE TECHNICAL TO USE IT? [The honest answer, not the marketing answer.] 4. WHAT DOES IT INTEGRATE WITH? [Or: what do I give up by choosing this?] 5. WHAT HAPPENS TO MY DATA? [Privacy, ownership, portability. Answer plainly.] 6. HOW DO I GET STARTED? [The exact first action. URL, download, account creation.] ``` --- ## How to use this in an AI coding tool **Don't paste the blank template into Kiro or Claude.** Fill it in first, then paste the completed PR-FAQ as context for your spec generation. Good prompt pattern: ``` Here is the PR-FAQ for the product I want to build. [paste the filled-in PR-FAQ] Based on this, generate: 1. A requirements document in EARS format covering the minimum viable version 2. A proposed architecture 3. A task breakdown for the first 4 hours of build time Do not invent features that aren't in the PR-FAQ. If something is missing or ambiguous, ask me before proceeding. ``` The last sentence matters. It turns the AI tool from an enthusiastic generator into a collaborator that pushes back. The PR-FAQ isn't a document you file. It's the upstream input to everything you build. --- ## Common mistakes to avoid | Mistake | Why it kills the spec | |---|---| | Vague customer ("product people") | The AI tool will generate a vague spec. Garbage in, garbage out. | | Feature list in the solution paragraph | The solution is an outcome, not a spec. Save features for the spec itself. | | Aspirational quotes ("game-changer!") | No real customer talks like that. If you can't imagine a real person saying the quote, you don't have a real value prop. | | Skipping the Problem paragraph | If you can't articulate the pain, you're building a solution looking for a problem. | | Forgetting "what we will NOT build" | Scope creep starts before you write a single line of code. | --- ## License Use this template freely. Share it. Adapt it. If it helps you ship something, I'd love to hear about it — tag [@ajbubb](https://linkedin.com/in/ajbubb) on LinkedIn. *Built by AJ Bubb / MxP Studio. Inspired by Amazon's Working Backwards method.*