To quote the famous economist Michael Porter, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” This idea was echoed by Steve Jobs, who famously said, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”
At Amazon, the majority of new ideas we had never became products. We would work for weeks or months on the PR/FAQs, going through multiple iterations, only for the project to be rejected. There are a few reasons this would happen.
The main reasons a product idea wouldn’t make it into production were:
a) The total addressable market (TAM) was too small to justify the investment.
b) There was no viable solution for a regulatory or technological roadblock
c) Other ideas were better or more viable
The third reason, that there were simply more compelling projects to prioritize, was actually the most common. Many of the product ideas that got developed were good and viable ideas, but they were not as big opportunities as other ideas.
Going through the PR/FAQ process for all product ideas helped us decide what NOT to work on just as much as it helped us decide what to work on. This is a feature of the process, not a bug.
One of the most valuable outcomes of the PR/FAQ process is that it aligns the organization on what they will not build, and why not. By thoroughly exploring a product idea and rigorously scrutinizing it, the process often reveals fatal flaws, insurmountable barriers, or opportunities that aren’t as valuable as initially imagined.
Many new ideas seem incredible at the outset, but their flaws are revealed through a rigorous PR/FAQ process.
If you want to learn more about the PR/FAQ process, you can learn everything from our class: https://lnkd.in/dffwDNTs
