Using Working Backwards in PM Interviews

Use Working Backwards as a PM interview framework: answer product sense questions from the customer back, and prepare Amazon-style behavioral stories.

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At a Glance

Overview

Working Backwards makes a useful PM interview framework because it gives an answer a fixed order: customer, problem, experience, then product. The Working Backwards method was built for deciding what to build inside Amazon, and its central habit is the one a product sense interview tests: can the candidate start from a real customer need and reason towards a product, instead of starting from features? This skill adapts the method to two kinds of product manager interview preparation: open product questions, and behavioral questions about your past work.

The habit has a clear source. Amazon's first Leadership Principle, Customer Obsession, begins "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards" (Amazon Leadership Principles). In a PR/FAQ, that means naming a specific customer, writing their problem from their point of view, and showing how the product is meaningfully better than what they use today (PR/FAQ instructions). An interview answer built the same way sounds structured without sounding memorized.

Be precise about where this applies. Open product sense questions, such as designing a product for a group of people or improving an existing one, are a familiar part of PM interviewing, and Working Backwards gives a strong order for answering them. Amazon's own interviews work differently. A co-author of the book Working Backwards, writing on the Working Backwards site, describes Amazon interviewers as trained in behavioral interviewing built on the Leadership Principles, and contrasts that approach with hypothetical questions such as how would you improve Amazon Alexa (how to ace an Amazon interview). For a working backwards interview at Amazon, the preparation is stories from your past where you started from the customer.

So the skill has two halves. The first is an answer structure for product sense questions, taken from the PR/FAQ. The second is a way to find and tell your own Working Backwards stories for behavioral questions, using the STAR format the same article describes.

The skill is not a script, and a template recited word for word tends to sound rehearsed. The point is to use the structure as a checklist while you think out loud, so that the customer and the problem are always settled before the solution.

How It Works

For product sense questions, the PR/FAQ supplies the order. Start with the customer, as the press release subheading does: one segment specific enough to reason about. Describe their problem in the terms they would use, as the problem paragraph does. Then describe the experience that would solve it, the way the solution paragraph does, and only then the features needed to deliver that experience. The template's instruction on customers is blunt: "If you think your product is for everyone, you are mistaken" (PR/FAQ instructions). Choosing a segment out loud, and saying why, is one of the clearest signals of product judgment you can give.

The FAQ supplies the pressure test. After proposing a solution, run through a few of the questions a reviewer would ask: would customers change their behavior to use this, on which dimension is it better, cheaper or faster than what they do today, and what hard problems stand in the way. Asking these of your own answer before the interviewer does shows the same skepticism a PR/FAQ review applies. The executive question "so what?" from Amazon's reviews (book excerpt) is a good last check on any feature you propose.

Metrics follow the customer outcome. When asked how you would measure success, name the change in the customer's experience that the press release would promise, and pick a measure of that change. Measures of activity, such as clicks or sign-ups, are fine as supporting signals but should not replace the outcome.

For behavioral questions, the work is preparation. The same article advises studying the Leadership Principles, writing down detailed examples from your career for each, and structuring each example with STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result (how to ace an Amazon interview). It asks for concise answers of 1-2 minutes with a clear beginning, middle and end, and for results stated with specific customer or financial measures. Stories where you started from a customer need, wrote the problem down, or stopped a project because the customer case was weak are the ones that show working backwards in practice.

The same source adds practical advice that applies to any product manager interview preparation: ask a clarifying question when a question is unclear instead of guessing, and use the company's product before the interview so you have a first-hand view of its strengths and weaknesses.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Identify the question type

Decide whether you have a product sense question, a strategy or prioritization question, or a behavioral question about your past. Product and strategy questions get the customer-first structure below. Behavioral questions get a prepared STAR story. If you are unsure what the interviewer wants, ask a short clarifying question before you start.

Step 2: Choose and name a customer segment

For product sense and strategy questions, name one specific customer segment and say briefly why you chose it over the others. Pick a segment with a sharp, recognizable problem. Describe them in enough detail that the interviewer could picture one person. If the question names a broad audience, narrow it out loud.

Step 3: Describe the problem from the customer's side

State what the customer is trying to do and what goes wrong today, in their language. Name what they currently use to cope, even if it is a workaround or nothing. Check that the problem is common enough and painful enough to matter. Candidates often rush this part, and slowing down here is where the method pays off.

Step 4: Describe the experience that solves it

Describe what the customer would do and see with the new product, as a short story from their point of view. Say why this is meaningfully better than their current solution. Keep it to the experience before naming any technology. You can frame this as the headline and subheading of a press release if that helps you stay concise.

Step 5: Work back to the minimum features

List the few capabilities the experience needs, and say which is the hard problem. Leave out features that do not serve the experience you described. If there is a sensible first version, say what it would include and what you would defer. This shows you can scope, which an interviewer may probe next.

Step 6: Pressure-test and measure

Ask yourself two or three FAQ questions out loud: why would customers switch, what could make this fail, and what would it cost. Answer them briefly. Then name the outcome metric that would show the customer's experience improved, and one or two supporting measures. Close with a one-sentence summary of customer, problem and solution.

Step 7: Prepare behavioral stories in advance

Before the interview, write down stories from your own work for each Leadership Principle you expect, especially Customer Obsession. Structure each with situation, task, action and result, and include a measurable result. Practice telling each in one to two minutes, recording yourself to check timing. Choose at least one story where you started from the customer and one where you changed or stopped a plan because of what you learned.

Best Practices

• Narrow the customer early and say why. A specific segment makes every later part of the answer sharper and shows judgment.
• Spend real time on the problem. A well-described problem makes the solution easier to evaluate and shows the reasoning behind it.
• Name the current alternative. Every customer copes somehow today, and comparing against that makes your solution's value concrete.
• Test your own answer before the interviewer does. Raising the main risk yourself shows the skepticism a PR/FAQ review is meant to apply.
• Keep behavioral answers short and specific. The co-author's advice is concise answers with a clear structure; the interviewer will ask for more if they want it.
• Use the product before the interview. A first-hand view of the product gives you real customer problems to reason from.

Common Mistakes

• Starting with features: Opening with what you would build skips the reasoning the interviewer is looking for. Start with the customer and the problem, even briefly.
• Choosing everyone as the customer: A product for everyone produces vague answers. Pick one segment and say you would come back for others.
• Reciting a framework: Naming the steps of a framework without applying them sounds rehearsed. Use the structure silently as a checklist and let the content carry the answer.
• Using hypotheticals for behavioral questions: When asked about a time you did something, describe what you actually did. Hypothetical answers do not show past behavior.
• Metrics without an outcome: Listing engagement metrics without tying them to the customer's improved experience suggests you are measuring activity. Start from the outcome.

References

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

Related Skills

• Writing an Internal Press Release for a Product Idea
• Defining the Customer Experience Before Building
• Drafting the FAQ Section of a PR/FAQ
• Identifying Minimum Lovable Requirements
• Running PR/FAQ Review Meetings
• Iterating PR/FAQ Documents Through Feedback

Sources

• Working Backwards LLC: How to ace an Amazon interview
• Amazon Leadership Principles
• Working Backwards LLC: PR/FAQ Instructions and Template
• About Amazon: excerpt from Working Backwards

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