Writing the PR/FAQ document is just the beginning of an effective product development process. The next phase is the feedback, meeting, and review phase, where teams collaborate to iteratively improve, explore, and develop each new product or process idea. Here are some best practices for managing this phase. (Amazonians—feel free to add to this list in the comments!)
First, share your initial draft with a handful of intra-team and cross-functional stakeholders. This may include product managers, engineers, designers, operations, marketers, and customer support. These should be your closest peers. Ask them to read your draft and provide inline comments. At this phase, these peers are most helpful when pointing out potential roadblocks, considerations, or dependencies you may have missed. The best reviewers strengthen the PR/FAQ in two ways:
Improvements to the PR. This means improving the idea for the new product or process in the PR—usually a more refined definition of who the customer is, the specific problem we are trying to solve for this segment, and the product solution.
Identifying additional FAQs or information to answer FAQs. Not all FAQ contributions should support building the product. Many should highlight important considerations or reasons not to build it.
Once you incorporate their feedback, expand the circle to a broader set of stakeholders and more senior leaders. The goal of each round is to iteratively improve the document, strengthen the thinking, improve the fidelity of the FAQ answers, and refine the document itself.
Promising new ideas are eventually presented upwards or broadly in formal meetings. Set clear objectives. Be specific about what parts of the document you seek feedback on: the concept, feasibility, pricing, per-unit economics, regulatory issues, etc. Make your purpose known in advance.
To run the meeting well, assign two roles in advance: a facilitator (usually the document’s primary author) and a note taker. These must be two different people, as it’s not possible to take comprehensive notes while also answering questions and managing discussion.
Begin the meeting with a silent reading period of about 20 minutes for a one-hour meeting. This allows participants to absorb the content and make notes. A brief one-minute preamble can provide context, but the document should stand on its own.
After reading, choose one of two discussion formats: a structured walk-through section by section, or a round-robin where each person shares their most important feedback. Always start with the most junior person and end with the most senior, as senior leaders going first can unintentionally sway opinions and suppress dissent.
The mindset of the writer/facilitator should be to seek truth, not defend ideas. It’s fine to reply to comments in the doc, but never update the narrative during the meeting. That should only occur after reviewing all feedback.
(cont. in comments)
