What Is a PRFAQ? Amazon's Working-Backwards Document Explained

The one-line definition

A PRFAQ is a one-to-two-page document that pairs a fictional press release announcing your product with a frequently asked questions section. You write it before you build, then work backwards to the actual work required to make the press release true.

Why Amazon invented it

Amazon's product teams kept building things customers didn't care about. The fix was deceptively simple: force the team to describe the launch in customer-facing language first. If the press release sounds boring, the idea is boring. If you can't write clear FAQs, you don't understand the product yet.

The method became known as "working backwards" and it's now used at most large product orgs and a growing number of startups.

What goes in a PRFAQ

A PRFAQ has two parts:

1. The Press Release (½ page)

• Headline — what's launching, in one sentence
• Sub-headline — who it's for and what they get
• Problem paragraph — why the world needs this
• Solution paragraph — what the product does
• Customer quote — said by an imagined real user
• Founder quote — the strategic "why now"
• Call to action — how to get it

2. The FAQ (½ to 1 page)

Split into external questions (what customers will ask) and internal questions (what your team and investors will ask). The internal FAQ is where the real product thinking happens: pricing, TAM, the riskiest assumption, what you're explicitly not building.

When founders should use one

• Before writing a single line of code for a new product
• Before a strategic pivot — write the new PRFAQ first
• When you can't explain your startup the same way twice
• Before fundraising — your pitch deck is downstream of your PRFAQ

A working PRFAQ template

The fastest way to write one is to fill in a template.

Free PRFAQ Generator

Answer 8 questions, get a complete PRFAQ you can copy into a doc. No signup.

Open the generator

Common mistakes

Writing for investors instead of customers. The press release is for the customer. Save the moat-and-multiple talk for the internal FAQ.
Vague benefits. "Streamlines workflows" tells you nothing. Name the actual outcome.
Skipping the internal FAQ. That's where the strategic decisions live. Without it you have marketing copy, not a plan.
Treating it as a one-time artifact. Revisit it every quarter. Your PRFAQ should evolve as you learn.

After the PRFAQ

Once your PRFAQ is sharp, the next problem is repetition. Every investor, every hire, every press email asks you to explain the company again. A growing trend among founders is to publish their PRFAQ as a chatbot anyone can interrogate — see how to explain your startup without repeating yourself.