The PRFAQ Framework provides the structure for founders, product leaders, and innovators to effectively discover, debate, and decide on a vision and strategy. It was invented by Amazon as part of their Working Backwards practices. If you are here, you probably have an idea that you want to convert into a PRFAQ and this article is for you.

A misunderstanding about the PRFAQ framework is that people assume they must be brilliant writers to create a great PRFAQ. That’s not true. What they need is to develop clarity of thought. The PRFAQ itself is an iterative process done in collaboration with others. Whether the idea is solving a simple, complicated, or complex problem, the writing should always be simple, clear, and concise. Using plain language will do just fine as long as you are precisely conveying the idea.

Before you sit down and start writing a PRFAQ, you need to do some homework. One way of doing this preliminary work is to create a “Storyboard,” just like movie studios plan for their recording. Then you start on your “PRFAQ Project,” made of three steps to get your first draft completed and start collaborating with your team and experts.

Building a Storyboard

If you are like most people, sitting to write and staring at a blank page is anxiety-inducing. There is this illusion that creativity will strike, and the content will flow out of your brain into the document. That’s not how professional writers do it, that’s not how you should do it. A Storyboard of cards helps you visualize your idea's narrative and ensures the elements are interconnected.

The right approach is to collect your thoughts as bullet points in your favorite tool (Notion, OneNote, Google Docs, Notes, etc.). They don’t have to be organized, prioritized, or even have an obvious purpose yet. Write bullet points about things you read as you do your research, who your customer is (or isn’t), what types of problems (Jobs-to-be-Done) they have, links to information you think applies to the project, and everything else. Hopefully, you’ve been doing it already. If not, spend a few hours or a few days collecting those bullet points.

There is an advantage in slow-rolling this step. As you research, read, and take notes, you’ll see that your idea will morph into a different idea. It’s possible that you completely abandon the original idea to pursue something else that feels like a bigger or more impactful opportunity. That’s good! The PRFAQ method is already working for you, and you haven’t written a single line yet!

Once you have collected enough data points, it’s time for you to organize them. I call this the Collate phase. Your job here is to connect each bullet point to group them. My advice is that you attach labels/tags to each bullet point. You can come up with your taxonomy for these labels that makes sense for your project. Typical labels include: Problem, Solution, Pricing, Feasibility, Distribution, Go-to-Market, Resources, Privacy, Ops, etc.

You do this digitally—on the app you have your bullet points, or using a different tool such as Excel, Google Sheets, or Miro—or using physical cards or a whiteboard. Group the bullets by the labels they are associated with. The next step is to find the themes that emerge. Those will be specific to your project. For example, if you are building a marketplace for home maintenance, your themes might be “House Owner Search & Filter,” “Contractor Request,” and “Payment.” You’ll notice that you will discover more bullet points that you weren’t thinking of before. Add them, label them, and put them within a theme.

Through this process, you will get more clarity on what the “story” behind this idea is. What’s the problem and who’s the customer? How will we solve it? How many people (or businesses) have this problem? How do they solve it today? How much will we be able to charge for it? Etc.

PRFAQ First Draft

Now that you have a bunch of organized content (your Storyboard), you can write your PRFAQ. Contrary to most types of writing, it’s not a linear process. You’ll start from the “middle” and jump between sections to fill in the narrative. Treat your PRFAQ as a project itself. This project involves you writing the first version based on what you learned so far. Then you host a series of review sessions and decision sessions, not covered here.

I don’t cover here how you use precise writing to ensure your language is clear, concise, and coherent. The book goes into the specifics of precise writing and we also have a series on our newsletter that you can learn and practice it.

Follow these three steps to write your first draft.

Step 1: Customer, Problem, Market, and Value

This is a good place to start because it requires almost no creative thinking. You are basically reporting on the current state of the world. This information exists regardless of what you are creating. If you can’t clearly state who’s the customer, what problem they have (and why), what’s the current state of the market for solving that problem, and the value that customers get by solving it, you either didn’t do enough research or you don’t have an opportunity in your hand.

This step consists of picking five to ten questions for your internal FAQs and drafting an answer for each. In the process of writing the answers, you might realize you don’t have the information you need, and you have two choices: 1) Go research to improve the quality and accuracy of the answer, or 2) Make an educated assumption about it. If you are making an assumption, it’s important you don’t state it as a fact. Make it clear what you know and what you are assuming.

The Internal FAQs are flexible and specific to your project, but I strongly advise that your first FAQ is, “What problem are we solving?” or “Who’s the customer and what problem are we solving for them?”

Step 2: Solution, Feasibility, and Viability

This is where your proposed solution comes into play and the Working Backwards practice is important. You imagine a future where customers are solving their problems—maybe for the first time, or cheaper, better, and/or faster than they could before.

You need to present one or more ways to solve the customers' problems that are feasible (can be done) and viable (it makes sense for your organization). These should include information about pricing, how it works (for the customers), distribution (how are customers finding out about it), and more. Honestly, you don’t need all the answers, and this is where the PRFAQ framework shines. As you host review sessions, each set of experts (engineers, UX, legal, marketing, content, finance, sales, etc.) will challenge and help you refine the strategy and vision.

In this step, you select five to ten questions for your Internal FAQs that will best represent the strategy and vision for the project. Besides those, you’ll also select five to eight questions to add to the Customer FAQs section of the document. Because the Customer FAQs come before the Internal FAQs in the document, you don’t need to repeat the information that you have presented already. Keep it succinct.

As you merge the Internal FAQs from Step 1 with the ones from Step 2, you want to ensure the story is flowing naturally so people don't have to jump from page to page. For example, if your first question is “What problem are we solving?” from Step 1 above, the next question that's likely to come up in people's minds is, "How are you solving it?"

Step 3: Write the Press Release

This is the easiest part to get stuck. People don’t feel they have the creative writing juices to write an amazing press release. Let me help you out! First, as you write your first version of your press release, don’t obsess about making it “pop,” or about the grammar and style. Just do it. Each of the seven paragraphs is quite prescriptive and I describe them in the PRFAQ 101 article (you can also download one of our templates).

After you finish your first pass, let it rest for an hour or a day, and then come back to edit it. Now, you have a PRFAQ that’s ready to be reviewed by others. Yes, it won't be perfect, and reviewers will point out issues with the thinking, the language, and more. That's the process at work.

Conclusion

You should approach writing a PRFAQ systematically. You collect as much data about your idea as you can before you “sit down” to write it. Once you have enough, organize it with labels and group them into themes. Now, you are ready to write. First, write the Internal FAQs that represent the current state of the world. Second, write the Internal FAQs—working backward from the desired outcome—that represent what you are proposing and the Customer FAQs that bring clarity from the customer POV. Finally, write your Press Release following the prescriptive format of the seven paragraphs. Now you’ve got your first PRFAQ ready to review with a coworker/co-founder!

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