PR/FAQ

The Working Backwards document became known as the PR/FAQ.

…

The PR gives the reader the highlights of the customer experience. The FAQ provides all the salient details of the customer experience as well as a clear-eyed and thorough assessment of how expensive and challenging it will be for the company to build the product or create the service.

…

Over time, we refined and normalized the specifications for the PR/FAQ. The press release (PR) portion is a few paragraphs, always less than one page. The frequently asked questions (FAQ) should be five pages or less. There are no awards for extra pages or more words. The goal isn’t to explain all the excellent work you have done but rather to share the distilled thinking that has come from that work.⊕ (Bryan and Carr 2021, chap. 5)

These are the key elements of the press release:

Heading: Name the product in a way the reader (i.e., your target customers) will understand. One sentence under the title.

“Blue Corp. announces the launch of Melinda, the smart mailbox.”

Subheading: Describe the customer for the product and what benefits they will gain from using it. One sentence only underneath the heading.

“Melinda is the physical mailbox designed to securely receive and keep safe all your e-commerce and grocery deliveries.”

Summary Paragraph: Begin with the city, media outlet, and your proposed launch date. Give a summary of the product and the benefit.

“PR Newswire, Atlanta, GA, November 5, 2019. Today Blue Corp. announced the launch of Melinda, a smart mailbox that ensures secure and properly chilled delivery and storage for your online purchases and groceries.”

Problem Paragraph: This is where you describe the problem that your product is designed to solve. Make sure that you write this paragraph from the customer’s point of view.

“Today, 23 percent of online shoppers report having packages stolen from their front porch, and 19 percent complain of grocery deliveries being spoiled.”

Solution Paragraph(s): Describe your product in some detail and how it simply and easily solves the customer’s problem. For more complex products, you may need more than one paragraph.

“With Melinda, you no longer need to worry about getting your online purchases and deliveries stolen…”

Quotes and Getting Started: Add one quote from you or your company’s spokesperson and a second quote from a hypothetical customer in which they describe the benefit they are getting from using your new product. Describe how easy it is to get started, and provide a link to your website where customers can get more information and purchase the product.

“Melinda is a breakthrough in safety and convenience for online shoppers…”⊕ (Bryan and Carr 2021, chap. 5)

Often FAQs are divided into external (customer focused) and internal (focused on your company).

…

For internal FAQs, there is a more standardardized list of topics you will need to cover. Here are some of the typical areas to address.

Consumer Needs and Total Addressable Market

… These consumer questions will enable you to identify the core customers by filtering out those who don’t meet the product constraints. …

Economics and P&L

… For new products, the up-front investment is a major consideration …

Dependencies

… A common mistake among less-seasoned product managers is to not fully consider how third parties who have their own agendas and incentives will interact with their product idea, or what potential regulatory or legal issues might arise.

Feasibility

… These questions are intended to help the author clarify to the reader what level of invention is required and what kind of challenges are involved in building this new product …⊕ (Bryan and Carr 2021, chap. 5)