Definition Workflow Amazon Working Backwards

aws-one-way-door

Amazon Working Backwards with one-way-door ceremony — for hard-to-reverse decisions (typically new product lines, public commitments, major investments). Starts with the human-authored Press Release (the founding artifact), stress-tests it with the FAQ, and requires the 6-pager decision narrative before build spend. Optional post-FAQ deepening: MRD (market validation, product scale) or OpportunitySpec (discovery, feature scale) — the door sets the ceremony; the scale picks the tool.

Inspired by Amazon Working Backwards. The methodology is its originators’ own published work, drawn from their public writing and talks. ProductBuildersHQ has implemented it as a machine-readable workflow in VisionSpec so it can be automated — spec synthesis and LLM-as-a-Judge evaluation, built in. This encoding is an independent interpretation, not affiliated with or endorsed by its originators. Source →

Methodology reference →

Specs in This Workflow

FAQ Required gtm Stress-tests the press release. Absorbs the business case: market, economics, why-now, feasibility.

6-Pager Required gtm

PRD Required source

Press Required gtm The founding artifact: human-authored press release announcing the customer experience. Written first; everything else works backward from it.

TPD Required technical Test plan document

TRD Required technical

UXD Required source

BMC Optional gtm Business Model Canvas extracted from MRD for stakeholder review

IRD Optional technical Infrastructure requirements

MRD Optional source Optional market validation deepening the FAQ's business-case answers with evidence (typical at product scale)

1-Pager Optional gtm

OpportunitySpec Optional source Optional 12-box discovery canvas (Patton + Cagan) deepening the FAQ's answers (typical at feature scale)

SPEC Optional output

Synthesis Rules

How downstream specs are generated from upstream ones.

MRD BMC

Extract Business Model Canvas blocks from MRD. Focus on customer obsession and working backwards.

Press FAQ

Challenge the press release's assumptions ruthlessly. Include customer questions, internal stakeholder questions, and the business case: market, economics, why now, feasibility.

TRD IRD

Infrastructure and operations requirements derived from the technical design.

Press +FAQ MRD

Deepen and validate the FAQ's business-case answers with market evidence: segments, sizing, competition, positioning.

Press +FAQ +PRD 6-Pager

Amazon 6-pager format for the one-way-door decision meeting. Data-driven narrative, no slides.

Press +FAQ OpportunitySpec

Populate the 12-box OpportunitySpec canvas from the Press Release and FAQ. Flag boxes the source documents leave unanswered — those are the discovery gaps.

Press +FAQ +MRD +OpportunitySpec PRD

Derive product requirements from the announced customer experience (press) and its stress-tested constraints (FAQ), grounded in whichever optional deepening is present: market validation (MRD, typical at product scale) or the discovery canvas (OpportunitySpec, typical at feature scale).

Press

Human-authored founding artifact — not synthesized. Write the press release first; everything else works backward from it.

MRD +PRD +UXD +TRD +TPD SPEC

Unified specification consolidating all approved specs.

PRD +TRD +UXD TPD

Test plan covering all PRD requirements with traceability, including UX acceptance flows.

PRD +UXD +MRD TRD

Technical design to support PRD requirements, grounded in the market context from the MRD where present.

Methodology Principles

Customer Obsession Start with the customer and work backwards; earn and keep customer trust. Economics count: exciting customers with something unsustainable is not doing right by them. Competitors inform, customers decide.

Ownership Think long-term; never sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. Act for the whole company. The test: what would I do if this were my personal money?

Invent And Simplify Expect invention and simplification; be externally aware and take ideas from everywhere — no 'not invented here.' Accept being misunderstood for long periods.

Are Right A Lot Judgment over ego: seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm your own beliefs. The goal is the best answer for the customer, whoever's idea it is. Leaders speak last.

Learn And Be Curious Never done learning; curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

Hire And Develop The Best Raise the performance bar with every hire; develop leaders and take ownership of others' growth.

Insist On Highest Standards Relentlessly, even unreasonably, high standards. Defects do not get sent down the line. Higher expectations produce better results.

Think Big Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Communicate a bold direction; look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Bias For Action Speed matters and is a leadership decision, not a circumstance. Most decisions are reversible two-way doors — make them quickly at the team level. Reserve deep study for one-way doors. Days or hours, not weeks.

Frugality Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. No extra points for headcount, budget, or fixed expense.

Earn Trust Listen attentively, speak candidly, treat others respectfully. Be vocally self-critical, even when awkward; benchmark against the best.

Deep Dive Operate at all levels and stay connected to the details; audit frequently; be skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. It is hard to fake the details in a narrative — that is why the narrative format works.

Have Backbone Respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, even when uncomfortable. No compromise for social cohesion. Once decided, commit wholly.

Deliver Results Focus on the key inputs and deliver with the right quality, on time. Launch is the starting line, not the finish.

Strive To Be Earths Best Employer Work to create a safer, more productive, more diverse, and more just work environment; lead with empathy and make others' success possible.

Success And Scale Bring Broad Responsibility Big things carry big obligations: be humble about second-order effects, better every day for customers, employees, communities, and the world, and leave things better than found.

Feeds Execution Via

AWS Working Backwards → AI-DLC Definition side runs Amazon Working Backwards (aws-one-way-door) to produce the six-pager, PRD, and TRD; the execution side hands those to AWS AI-DLC, whose Requirements Analysis absorbs them as the Vision and drives Construction.

Included Assets

15 document templates · 13 LLM-as-a-Judge rubrics — embedded in visionspec.