Decision MakingLeadership

Working Backwards

Colin Bryar and Bill Carr

Bryar and Carr document Amazon's PR/FAQ process: every proposed project must produce a written press release and FAQ, reviewed by senior leadership, before a single engineering resource is allocated. Most are rejected — a feature, not a flaw. The Quarterly Operating System cites it as the clearest account of treating written pre-commitment as a structural discipline rather than an optional planning step.