Running PR/FAQ Review Meetings

How to run an Amazon-style PR/FAQ review meeting: silent reading, written comments, line-by-line debate, the senior voice last, and minutes after.

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At a Glance

Overview

A PR/FAQ review meeting is where a draft PR/FAQ from the Working Backwards method meets the people who will question it. The format comes from Amazon's wider habit of replacing slides with written narratives. Jeff Bezos described it in his 2017 shareholder letter: "We don't do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon." Teams write narrative memos, and the meeting starts with everyone reading one silently, in what he called a kind of study hall.

Colin Bryar and Bill Carr describe the PR/FAQ version of that meeting in their book. The author sets up a one-hour meeting with stakeholders once the draft is in shareable condition, distributes the PR/FAQ, and everyone reads it to themselves. The writer then asks for general feedback, then for specific comments line by line and paragraph by paragraph, which the authors call the critical part of the meeting (Amazon's excerpt from Working Backwards). After the meeting, the writer sends minutes with notes on the feedback and starts revising.

The reason for reading in the room is practical. As reported by CNBC, Bezos said that without it, "the executives, like high school kids, will try to bluff their way through a meeting" (CNBC). Reading together guarantees everyone has the same information when the discussion starts, and it spends the meeting on debate instead of presentation.

Bryar and Carr are clear about what the meeting is for. They say a common misconception is that its goal is to sell the idea and get a thumbs up or thumbs down, and that at Amazon they focused on truth-seeking over selling and improving over deciding (PR/FAQ instructions). The reviewers help the author understand and improve the idea. The decision comes later, after enough rounds.

This skill covers one meeting: preparing it, running it and closing it. Revising the document across several meetings is covered in Iterating PR/FAQ Documents Through Feedback.

How It Works

The meeting has two halves. Bryar and Carr describe the document being circulated at the start, followed by 15-20 minutes of silent reading and note-taking, with participants adding comments and questions directly to the shared document; the remaining 40 minutes go to questions, debate and discussion (PR/FAQ instructions). The reading time matches their general guidance for narrative meetings, which pairs six pages or less with a one-hour meeting and a 15-20 minute read (Narratives and Decision Making).

The discussion can run two ways. The authors describe going around the room or going page by page, with the authoring team answering comments and questions from the document and taking detailed notes. Their narratives guidance adds that questions already answered in writing during the reading need no verbal response, which saves the spoken time for the complex questions and the ones that pose a choice.

Order of speaking matters. In the book, "The most senior attendees tend to speak last, to avoid influencing others" (book excerpt). If the most senior person speaks first, everyone else tends to react to that view, and the author loses the independent reactions the meeting is meant to collect.

Reviewers need a shared idea of what to evaluate. Bryar and Carr list the reviewer's questions: is the customer clearly defined, is the problem clearly defined, does the proposed solution address the problem, would customers change their behavior to use it, on which dimensions is it better, cheaper or faster than substitutes, is the market and the payback big enough, and what constraints or problems (business, resources, technical, legal) must be solved (PR/FAQ instructions). Sharing that list with reviewers keeps comments specific.

The group is small. The authors suggest a small group of about 10 contributors for the first few drafts, then separate reviews with executives once the decision maker in the small group is satisfied (PR/FAQ instructions). Their narratives page describes this kind of meeting as suited to a small group (5-20 people) who need to make decisions (Narratives and Decision Making).

The meeting ends with notes. The writer distributes minutes, including the feedback, to everyone who attended, then revises. Bryar and Carr warn that the process can be stressful however constructive the feedback, and that gaps will be found. The author's job in the room is to listen and write down, and defending the draft can wait for the next version.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Decide the purpose and invite the group

Decide what this meeting should achieve: an early check on the customer and problem, a feasibility pass with engineering and finance, or a review with the decision maker. Invite a small cross-functional group that can answer that question, including at least one person likely to disagree. Name who will take notes, since the author will be busy listening. Book an hour.

Step 2: Prepare the document

Put the PR/FAQ in a shared document that accepts inline comments. Check it stays within the length limits: under a page for the press release and five pages or less for the FAQ. Add a short note at the top on what kind of feedback you need most. Do not send it in advance as a substitute for reading in the room.

Step 3: Open with silent reading

Start the meeting by asking everyone to read the whole document and add comments as they go. Allow time for everyone to finish, and do not start the discussion while people are still reading. Stay quiet during the reading; explaining the document out loud defeats the purpose. Share the reviewer questions beforehand or at the top of the document so comments address them.

Step 4: Collect general reactions

When everyone has finished, ask for high-level reactions: does the customer and problem hold up, and would this product matter to them? Start with the most junior people and ask the most senior person to speak last. Write down each reaction as it is given. Look for themes that several people raise independently.

Step 5: Go through the document in detail

Work through the document page by page or person by person. Skip comments already answered in writing and spend the time on questions that are complex or that pose a choice. Let people debate the ideas and the wording, since unclear wording often hides unclear thinking. When the discussion stalls on an unknown, record it as an open question with an owner instead of guessing an answer in the room.

Step 6: Close with open questions and next steps

In the last minutes, read back the main feedback, the open questions and who owns each. Agree on whether the next step is a revision for the same group, a wider review, or taking the document to the decision maker. If a decision maker is present and ready, they can state a direction; disagreements that remain can be recorded, and anyone who still disagrees can say so and commit, in the sense Bezos describes in his 2016 letter.

Step 7: Send minutes and start the revision

Within a day, send minutes to everyone who attended with the feedback, the open questions, owners and next steps. Keep the inline comments in the document as a record. Start the revision with the feedback that changes the customer, the problem or the premise, and leave wording fixes for last.

Best Practices

• Read in the room even if the document went out early. Reading together is what guarantees everyone discusses the same version with the same information.
• Protect the order of speaking. Ask senior people to hold their views until others have spoken, and do it before the meeting so it does not feel like a rebuke.
• Keep the group small. A small group can reach the detail the document needs; wider audiences are for later rounds.
• Keep comments in the document. Written comments are more specific than spoken ones, and they survive the meeting.
• Separate the author from the note-taker. An author who is writing notes cannot also listen fully or ask follow-up questions.
• Treat a found gap as a result. The review exists to find problems while they are still cheap to fix, and a meeting that finds none probably did not look hard enough.

Common Mistakes

• Presenting the document: Walking through the PR/FAQ out loud turns the meeting back into a presentation. Let people read.
• Selling instead of seeking the truth: An author who defends every point teaches reviewers to stop raising them. Listen, record and decide what to change afterwards.
• Letting the senior voice go first: Once the most senior person gives a view, others tend to react to it. Ask them to speak last.
• Ending without minutes: Feedback that lives only in people's memories changes nothing. Send written minutes with owners.
• Inviting too many people: A large audience makes detailed debate impossible and pushes people toward safe comments. Keep the first reviews small and add people as the document matures.

References

• Examples: Worked examples and scenarios
• FAQ: Frequently asked questions
• Parent Method: Working Backwards

Related Skills

• Iterating PR/FAQ Documents Through Feedback
• Drafting the FAQ Section of a PR/FAQ
• Writing an Internal Press Release for a Product Idea
• Defining the Customer Experience Before Building
• Identifying Minimum Lovable Requirements
• Using Working Backwards in PM Interviews

Sources

• About Amazon: excerpt from Working Backwards
• Working Backwards LLC: PR/FAQ Instructions and Template
• Working Backwards LLC: Narratives and Decision Making
• Jeff Bezos: 2017 Letter to Shareholders
• Jeff Bezos: 2016 Letter to Shareholders
• CNBC: Jeff Bezos makes Amazon execs read 6-page memos in meetings

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