Hello friends!
Today I’d like to talk to you about a powerful creation tool that is a cornerstone of Amazon’s internal practices – the PR/FAQ.
This tool is so powerful and versatile that I am doing a 3-part series on it, to give you a thorough understanding on 1) what PR/FAQ is and how to write one, 2) the magic of PR/FAQ and why you should use it, and 3) how to deploy a PR/FAQ to shape your own career and goals.
“PR” stands for Press Release, and FAQ, of course, is Frequently Asked Questions. PR/FAQ is written as the first step of a project proposal, for something that doesn’t exist yet, for something you want to build. You write it from the point of view of the future, when this project is already complete, and you are releasing a statement to the press to announce its availability for the customers.
The structure of the document is several paragraphs (usually no more than half a page) of the Press Release statement, followed by several FAQs. The FAQ portion length is usually anywhere from half a page to a page and a half of questions/answers, although it can be longer.
A PR/FAQ always starts with the date of the Press Release. That date is always in the future (since as you’re writing it the project hasn’t been built yet), and corresponds to roughly when you think this project might be done.
Here are some simple rules to follow for writing an impactful PR/FAQ:
Name the project you are creating. Naming is a vital step for turning an idea into reality, as a thing does not exist in a human world until it has a name. Name can be descriptive, but it’s more important that it’s short and distinctive.
The focus of your PR/FAQ should be on the benefit it provides to the intended customers, how it’s making things easier and better for them. Your customers don’t really care what difficulties you had to overcome, or how exactly you implemented your idea, they only care about what it looks like to them, and the value it provides, so focus on that. This, of course, requires that you are clear on who your customers are.
Use present tense in your PR/FAQ, as in “customers are now able to” rather than future tense “customers will be able to”. Remember, you’re writing a Press Release for something that has already been built, and is ready for customers to use now.
Be excited and positive about all the benefits of your newly released thing, show that you are happy to present it to the world and be sure to explain what makes it so awesome. Remember, your goal is to sell your idea, to have the reader understand it and to be excited about it.
As in any respectable PR statement, include a couple of made-up quotes by your leadership and potential customers gushing about how happy they are with this new offering. Don’t be shy, we know it’s made up!
Prioritize and order your FAQs, assume that not every person will read all the FAQs, so sort them in order of importance. Having a long list of FAQs is a trick you can use to make sure your detail-oriented readers can get all the information they want, and your “give me the bottom line” readers can get away with reading only the first few FAQs to grasp what they need.
Example
Here is an example PR/FAQ that describes me releasing this article series to the public. I'm writing this on September 5th 2023, but the PR/FAQ is dated in the future, when I hope these article series will be published already.
PR/FAQ
September 15th, 2023 Today, Olia Kerzhner announced that she has released the 3-part article series “PR/FAQ Primer” on LinkedIn and on her own website. In this series of short articles Olia explains in detail what a PR/FAQ is, how to write one; the reasons it’s so powerful and useful; provides an example; and finally explains how to leverage this incredible tool to shape and advance your career and personal goals.
“I am so happy to be offering the PR/FAQ Primer to our tech and business community” said Olia, “it is an incredibly powerful tool, and I am excited that with the help from this Primer, everyone can learn how to use it effectively in their work.”
The feedback from the LinkedIn community has been overwhelmingly positive: “I was an SDE2 at Amazon for 3 years a few years back, and I heard of the PR/FAQ concept, but I never had the chance to read one or write one myself. I always thought it was something used only at a VP level. But now I see that it’s a perfect tool I can use to pitch my new idea to my Director at my current company!” said Vivek S., a manager at Smart Ai.
“I have never heard of a PR/FAQ before this Primer, but it made perfect sense to me! Using the guidelines from Olia’s articles, I already wrote one proposing a new feature for our App, and presented it to my leadership. They loved the idea, and now I get to lead the feature development team! It was such an effective way to make a pitch that other folks in my org are now using PR/FAQs when they write their proposals.” said Maria G., a Senior Engineer at Best Apps Now.
Olia has been using the PR/FAQ for many years in her work at Amazon, and then in her coaching practice helping clients, and she is very happy to make this knowledge and set of skills available to a wider audience, so it can help even more folks be effective and productive in their professional lives.
FAQ:
Q. Where can I read the PR/FAQ Primer?
A. The PR/FAQ Primer is available on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olia-kerzhner/recent-activity/articles/ and on Olia’s website: https://www.oliakerzhner.com/articles
Q. How many parts are there in the PR/FAQ Primer?
A. The PR/FAQ Primer consists of 3 articles. They are meant to be read in order.
Q. Who is the intended audience for the PR/FAQ Primer?
A. Anyone who is interested in growing their career and their professional effectiveness, regardless of the industry they’re in or their current title, can benefit from reading this Primer and leveraging PR/FAQs in their work.
Q. How would the PR/FAQ Primer benefit the folks who are already familiar with PR/FAQs?
A. The primer will remind them to use this powerful tool even more in their work, and show them new unexpected ways of deploying PR/FAQ for their personal career goals and growth (covered in Part 3 of the Primer).
Q. Does the PR/FAQ Primer have an example PR/FAQ document?
A. Yes! You’re reading it right now 🙂
Q. I thought PR/FAQs were only for execs and VPs and such, what use is this to me as an engineer?
A. The goal of the PR/FAQ Primer is to explain and show how anyone can, and should, effectively leverage the PR/FAQ in their work, regardless of title or level.
Q. What are the benefits of the PR/FAQ Primer to the broader engineering community?
A. The PR/FAQ Primer lays out the concept, mechanics, and usage of the PR/FAQ tool succinctly and clearly, in an easy-to-understand format. This knowledge, when used in practice, will help you become more effective in your work and empower you to create and shape not only your projects, but also your own career.
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