Working Backwards at Amazon

Source: Working Backwards Published: 2019

Source: Working Backwards
Published: 2019

Working Backwards at Amazon

Circulated: August 1, 2019

“The Working Backwards process is a huge amount of work. But, it will save you even more work later on.” — Jeff Bezos

We begin the process of Working Backwards with 5 questions:

1. Who is the customer?
   - Consider the time, place, and situation

2. What is the customer problem or opportunity?
   - Specify a problem you are going to solve. Define the size of the problem.

3. What is the most important customer benefit?
   - Prioritize what the customer values.

4. How do you know what customers want or need?
   - Recognize that your personal experience may not be representative of customers.
   - Challenge yourself to use data to back your thinking.

5. What does the customer experience look like?
   - Whiteboard sketch
   - Storyboard
   - User journey map
   - Wireframe
   - Technical architecture diagram