How to develop your product vision using Amazon’s proven technique

A simple guide to creating a strong vision for your — yet to be launched — products

Creativity can be learned

You do not have to be Steve Jobs to become a visionary product leader. You just need to use your creativity. Yes, studies have shown that some people are more creative than others, but do not let this bring you down. Creativity is a peculiarity of any living being and you just need to use it. There are many techniques to exercise creativity such as brainstorming, asking “what if” questions or trying to combine apparently unrelated objects. Look at this for example.

Can you see it? This is a new innovative packaging for flour which prevents spill over. What a wonderful piece of innovation! Can you see how they made it? They just combined two ideas. They used a common milk paper package but they put flour in it. Imagine when the product manager had the ahah moment and said “what if we put flour in a milk paper pack?” Brilliant!

So now going back to the point, creativity can be learned and there are many techniques out there. Do you want to learn a little more? Start by reading this masterpiece Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko.

Product vision and MVPs

So now that you know how to use creativity, let’s get a little more practical. How do I share my product vision? How can I get people to buy into my vision? One option is to try to explain your vision in words but trust me, it will not work. Just because you see it does not mean other people are seeing it. So what can you do? Show it! Find a way to get the product out of your brain and show it to people. That’s what product teams do when they build minimum viable products (MVPs). They create a product that gives customers the idea of what the product would look like. MVPs have reduced functionalities but still give a glimpse into what is possible.

Unfortunately, building an MVP is expensive and no matter how hard you try, you will always end up with an incomplete product. I am not saying MVPs are useless. They are in fact a crucial step of the product development lifecycle. However, depending on where you are in the product development process, building an MVP might not be the smartest thing to do.

Building a compelling product vision

If you are at the early stages of market validation, what you need is a compelling vision that describes the future you are trying to create. Even if you see it clearly in your mind, you need a way to show it to the others without spending money and time on MVPs. You need a way to unlock the main door of your brain and bring people along with you to see what you see.

The PRFAQ technique

In 2016, I had a vision for a product that three years later turned out to be a huge success, bringing millions of savings to my company. The idea was in the air but we needed somebody to capture it and make it real. What did I do? I wrote a press release! To be more precise I wrote a PRFAQ — a press release with frequently asked questions.

This is a powerful technique I learned at Amazon. It consists of writing an imaginary press release for the launch of your product. All products launched by Amazon start with somebody writing a press release.

“Today, Amazon is excited to announce that Alexa is now available for all customers. Alexa is designed around your voice and is hands-free and always on — ask for information, music, news, traffic, weather, and more from across the room and get results instantly…”

Believe it or not, this was written several years before the actual launch in 2015.

How to write a PRFAQ

So how does this technique work? Basically, you write a press release as if your product was about to be launched. You describe what it is that you are launching, the problem your product is solving, the benefits for the customer and how they can discover and use your product. At the end of the document you also provide a FAQ section which will try to answer all the questions customers might have about your product. It is also recommended to add an appendix with other supporting documents. For example, it is always a good idea to add a “visual”, a simple hand drawing showing your product. Market research results and other data points should also be included in the appendix.

A common PRFAQ outline should include the following sections:

1. Headline with a short description of what you are launching “Amazon launches X..”
2. Subheading stating the main benefits for the customers “Customers now can..”
3. Realistic launch date (three to five years in the future for example)
4. Paragraph 1 — Summary of what you are launching
5. Paragraph 2 — Describe the problem from the customer point of view
6. Paragraph 3 — Describe your approach to the solution
7. Paragraph 4 — Quote from an authority or a well-known leader who support the product (this has to be real person endorsing your product)
8. Paragraph 5 — Describe the customer experience in detail. A step by step explanation of how customers will use the product.
9. Paragraph 6 — Customer quote or review (this could be made up)
10. Paragraph 7 — Call to action — tell the customer what they should do to discover the product
11. FAQ
12. One or more appendixes containing a visual and other supporting documents such as market research data, customer surveys results, personas etc.

Socialising your PRFAQ

PRFAQ are very powerful to get everybody instantly inside your brain and help them see what you see. Also, the FAQ section is a good place to collect all questions and concerns coming from potential customers and stakeholders. Once you have a draft PRFAQ you should immediately start socialising it with people around you and collect their feedbacks. Do not wait until the PRFAQ is perfect. Just share what you have with people and use their feedback to improve the document as you go.

Handling negative feedback

Now the difficult part begins: most people will try to destroy your product idea. They will ask difficult questions and challenge your vision. Do not put yourself down! This is normal as people are very good at spotting pitfalls and things that might go wrong. Do not get worried. Negative feedback can only make your product vision stronger! Every time you encounter an objection just turn that into a new question for the FAQ section. By answering all those challenging questions, your product vision will become sharper and sharper. Answering those questions is the best job you can do for your product vision. Those answers will provide you with solid justification and data points to prove whether your vision is strong enough to make it through. Do not turn down negative feedback, embrace it!

Next steps

Have you ever used this technique? How did that go? Please let me know in the comments.