Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
August 2023
An inside look at Amazon's approach to innovation, leadership, and growth, written by two former Amazon executives who worked closely with Jeff Bezos.
Key Concepts
- Working Backwards: Starting with the customer and desired outcomes, then determining what needs to be built
- PR/FAQ: Writing a press release and FAQ before building a product to clarify vision and value
- Bar Raiser: Amazon's unique hiring process to maintain high standards
- Single-Threaded Leadership: Assigning clear ownership for initiatives to drive accountability
Personal Takeaways
The concept of working backwards has transformed my approach to product development. At 5X, I implemented a modified version of the PR/FAQ process, requiring product teams to articulate the customer value and answer key questions before we committed to building features. This forced us to clarify our thinking and often led to significant improvements in the initial concepts.
Practical Applications
I've found the single-threaded leadership model particularly effective for complex initiatives. When building our data transformation service, we assigned a dedicated leader rather than splitting responsibility across teams. This clear ownership accelerated decision-making and reduced coordination overhead. Additionally, we've adopted a version of the "two-pizza team" approach, keeping teams small enough to be nimble but complete enough to deliver end-to-end.
Favorite Quote
"Good intentions don't work, but mechanisms do."
Recommendation
Essential reading for product leaders and executives looking to build customer-centric organizations. The book offers practical frameworks that can be adapted to organizations of any size, not just Amazon-scale companies. The PR/FAQ approach alone is worth the price of admission.