May 05, 2024 | Read Online
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Welcome to your Sunday morning edition of the GrowthCurve.io newsletter. We exist to help SaaS executives level up.
On May 22, we're holding a workshop on three key subscription business metrics: ARR/MRR, Gross Retention, and Net Retention. It's free to register, click here to sign up..
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Amazon is a self-proclaimed, customer obsessed company.
According to their leadership principles page, customer obsession entails the following:
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
Maybe you think your company is customer obsessed, too.
But unless you operationalize that obsession, it’s more likely a series of platitudes and sound bites. Great for town halls and sales calls, but bearing little fruit when it comes to practical, day-to-day application. Customers and employees see right through it.
So how do you... operationalize customer obsession?
By working backwards.
You may be familiar with Amazon’s memo culture, and how Founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, banned PowerPoint slides in internal meetings back in 2004.
But have you heard of the PR/FAQ?
The PR/FAQ is s another arrow in Amazon’s quiver of “write-it-down culture” tools. A tactic the company uses to institutionalize customer obsession.
PR/FAQ stands for Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions. It's a two-part, written submission that teams use to validate customer needs and business viability before investing in a new product or service.
Part one of the PR/FAQ is the press release. It's written as if the product already exists to announce and commemorate its launch.
It describes why the product was built, who it’s for, the problems it solves, and the benefits customers will receive from using it.
The second part is frequently asked questions. A detailed set of answers to common questions and objections product managers anticipate from customers, executives, and engineers.
The PR/FAQ lives and evolves alongside the product throughout its development and commercialization. It's a classic example of how to operationalize your customer obsession, and "begin with the end in mind."
But beginning with the end doesn’t only apply to new products.
It's useful for any strategic initiative, like acquiring a company, moving into a new market, or hiring a key new executive.
Mapping your action plan backward from a clearly-defined outcome is a great way to identify actions to take right now.
What initiatives are you working on that could benefit from working backwards?
Perhaps a PR/FAQ is just the tool you need to get started.
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