With seven years of valuable experience in product leadership, Celine from Amazon Music shares her expertise on Amazon's renowned 'working backwards' launch methodology. This customer-centric approach, placing the customer at the forefront of every launch, has played a pivotal role in shaping some of Amazon's most successful product releases.

'We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. That becomes the touchstone for how we invent' – Jeff Bezos

Customer centricity: the guiding star

At Amazon, a launch isn't just about introducing a new feature; it's about meticulously crafting an experience that truly resonates with customers. Launches are tied to hierarchical goals reflecting their scale, impact and strategic importance, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently.

Ther are two kind of launches:

• PRFAQ launches: major initiatives or groundbreaking changes requiring strategic leadership buy-in. These launches involve the creation of a Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions document (see below).
• Non-PRFAQ launches: smaller improvements, experiments, or incremental changes that don't necessitate the same level of formality.

Launch process of major initiatives

1. Initiation and alignment on the customer problem

• Using the 'working backwards' method, product managers ensure that all stakeholders have a common understanding of the customer problem and the idea.
• Output: a Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions (PRFAQ) → template
• The initial page focuses on a 'Press Release' (PR) envisioning and communicating launch day benefits. The PR is drafted from a customer perspective and focuses on showcasing how the solution launched will help improve the customer experience. It includes hypothetical or real quotes from target customers and internal leaders at Amazon emphasizing these improvements. 
• The subsequent pages cover FAQs (both external and internal), addressing critical aspects like the problem's nature, its significance, how the solution proposed addresses the problem, why it’s critical to launch now, phasing of the launch, risks and hotly debated topics, among others. 

2. Leadership review of the PRFAQ and go/no-go decision

• Cross-functional (such as Marketing, PR, Legal, Licensing teams ..) and, when applicable, cross-organizational leaders are also brought in for review and alignment.

3. Resource allocation based on the PRFAQ estimates

4. Business requirements phase led by PMs

• Output: Business Requirements Document (BRD) where product managers outline key user stories with clear priorities, guiding engineers in their development efforts.

5. Handover to engineering

• Output: technical design and planning going from the BRD.

6. Detailed project staffing

7. Development, Quality Assurance and Beta testing

• Ongoing PM involvement for simplifying requirements, increasing/decreasing scope, bug triaging during QA phase, first-hand testing, Beta phase management, etc.

8. Go-to-market activities planning (for major launches)

9. Formal go/no-go launch meeting

• Based on beta results and QA assessments, a final go/no-go decision is made by VPs of cross functional (VP of Product, VP of Marketing, and VP of business teams involved) and when applicable cross organizational teams.

10. Launch and monitoring

For smaller launches

• The Press Release is usually skipped, or many small launches are combined into one Press Release.
• The Business Requirements Document is maintained as it is essential to outline user stories for engineers to develop the tech plan.
• Marketing efforts are consolidated for maximum impact (for example, a unified and impactful email to update users on 3 - 4 smaller launches).
• Core product and engineering processes remain unchanged: requirements, tech plans, dial-up processes, A/B testing, and learning mechanisms are maintained.

Formalizing the process

While there's no one-size-fits-all template, a Technical Program Manager (TPM) guides the launch process using a checklist inspired by past launches and internal resources. This checklist, iterated on using tools like Quip, outlines dependencies with a timeline working backward from the launch date, and is ultimately published on the internal wiki for broader access.

Alignment with cross functional and vertical stakeholders

Cross functional alignment in 3 phases

1. Early awareness: teams are informed about upcoming launches during the goal-setting process, enabling proactive planning and resource allocation.
2. PRFAQ alignment: for major launches, the PRFAQ serves as a central document for cross-functional alignment.
3. Continuous alignment: throughout the project, product managers handle non-technical communication, while TPMs manage technical communication and dependencies.

Leadership alignment around goal tracking

Amazon fosters a culture of transparency and accountability through a dedicated tool for tracking and managing key goals tied to different teams. This ensures everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives. Goals are clearly defined and cascaded down the organization, starting with S-Team goals set at the highest level by the CEO. These goals then branch out into organizational goals for SVPs and VPs, and finally translated into launch goals for individual projects. Each goal is assigned a color-coded status (green, yellow, red).

For goals marked yellow or red, individuals responsible must outline a 'Path to Green' plan, detailing steps, dependencies, and needed support from leadership. Critical project updates are regularly communicated through presentation decks.

Examples of goals:

• S-Team goals: (1) launch Amazon Music's Free tier in 2019, (2) grow the customer base from XXMM listeners to YY listeners (+ZZ% YoY).‍
• Organizational goal: drive listening hours per customer from XX to YY (+ZZ%) YoY by launching 3 personalized playlists and improving playback quality.

Progress tracking and status updates

At Amazon Music, status updates are communicated through:

• The internal wiki: the single source of truth, housing workback plans, milestones, descriptions of workstreams, progress updates, and relevant documentation.
• Regular meetings: weekly meetings, especially closer to launch, bring together business and tech stakeholders to discuss progress and address any concerns.
• Status update emails: weekly emails keep everyone informed about project status and potential risks.
• Out-of-the-weekly meetings: focused discussions on specific topics for deeper dives.
• Critical projects update deck: a weekly summary of top goals and their progress.
• Slack and Chime: Instant communication channels for ad-hoc discussions.

Challenges when launching and best practices

1. Lack of clear priorities: when PMs don't clearly define priorities, it becomes challenging for the engineering team to sequence the work appropriately → PMs should explicitly define priorities and inform engineers whether a launch is iterative or tied to a specific event, aiding resource allocation and work sequencing.‍
2. Limited PM involvement beyond requirements: some PMs may believe their role is complete after creating the BRD → PMs should remain actively involved throughout the project, even during QA phases, to identify and address inefficiencies.‍
3. Late involvement of non-technical stakeholders: Marketing and other non-technical stakeholders are involved late in the launch process, impacting customer awareness and education → Consider marketing as a top priority (P0), involve them early in the launch process, and in your quarterly business reviews for better alignment and awareness.
4. ‍Neglecting customer awareness and education: some product teams may overlook the importance of marketing and assume that launching a great product is sufficient → Prioritize marketing efforts and treat them as integral to the launch process.‍
5. Big Bang launch challenges: launching major changes to the experience overnight could catch customers off guard, lead to negative sentiment and unveil more issues than expected → For major experience changes, consider a phased rollout or experimentation with a subset of users to gather feedback and refine the value proposition.

Concluding thoughts

As expertly shared by Celine, Amazon's approach to product launches goes beyond mere technical implementation; it encompasses a holistic strategy that places the customer experience at the forefront. As businesses navigate the complexities of product development and launches, adopting a customer-centric mindset and following the 'working backwards' methodology can be a guiding star towards sustained innovation and success.