Amazon Working Backwards
by Ian McAllister • Senior Director of Product for Vehicles at Uber
A veteran product leader with 12 years at Amazon, where he created Amazon Smile and led Alexa International. He also served as Director of Product at Airbnb and is the author of the legendary blog post 'What Separates a Top 1% PM from a Top 10% PM'.
🎙️ Episode Context
Ian McAllister breaks down the core competencies required for product managers at different career stages, distinguishing between junior execution and senior strategy. He provides a masterclass on Amazon's 'Working Backwards' process, explaining how to implement it correctly and avoid common pitfalls like solution-first thinking.
Problem It Solves
Prevents teams from building solutions looking for a problem, or getting excited about technology that delivers no customer value.
Framework Overview
A product definition process that starts with the customer outcome and works backward to the technology, enforced by writing the launch documents before development starts.
🧠 Framework Structure
Start with the Problem: Define the sp...
The Press Release (PR): Write a 1-pag...
The FAQ: Create a 'legitimate plan to...
Bezos' 3 Gates: Is it a big idea? Is ...
When to Use
At the very beginning of a new product initiative or major feature innovation.
Common Mistakes
Retrofitting the problem: Deciding on a solution first and then writing a PR to justify it.
Real World Example
Ian used this process to pitch Amazon Smile directly to Jeff Bezos. Conversely, an early project 'ASIN to ASIN linking' failed because it started with available data, not a customer need.
If you don't have a problem paragraph, maybe there's not really a problem.
— Ian McAllister