The 'working backwards' process at Amazon starts with writing a press release for yourself to clarify what you're going to build, followed by answering the 20 most frequent questions about the product.

To roll out and operationalize the strategy, first review it one-on-one with key gatekeepers to ensure their support, then conduct a group review with all stakeholders for alignment.

I believe in reviewing everything before it ships. I conduct regular reviews to ensure that nothing goes out without my approval, which helps maintain a unified vision and direction for the company.

The initial prompt in a pre-mortem meeting is to imagine the project has failed and work backwards to identify what went wrong.

A common mistake teams make when trying to implement the working backwards process is that they start with a solution instead of a customer problem, which leads to retrofitting the problem to fit the solution.

The working backwards process at Amazon emphasizes starting with the problem and obsessing over it, rather than jumping straight to solutions.

The process of reasoning backwards, as used in detective work, can be applied to advertising to identify the conditions necessary for success.

When reviewing applications, I look for the founders' backgrounds, their idea, the current state of their product, and evidence of customer interest.

Engaging in hard questions before a project starts enables us to ship something successful later.