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Working Backwards PR-FAQ Template Guidance

Working Backwards PR-FAQ Template Guidance

Source

Summary

The Working Backwards template guidance emphasizes that the PR/FAQ should begin from the customer and work backward to the capabilities and problems the team must solve. It treats the external FAQ as a customer dialogue written in plain language and the internal FAQ as the place for the hard organizational, economic, feasibility, and operational questions.

The guidance also stresses review mechanics: circulate the document, read it carefully, add comments and questions, then debate and revise. The document is not a one-shot deliverable. It is a forcing function for clarity.

HELIX Implications

  • Do not make the artifact skills-forward. Start from what the customer needs, not what the team already knows how to build.
  • Use customer language in external sections and reserve internal mechanics for the FAQ.
  • Require explicit review and revision rather than treating the first draft as approved.
  • Make the downstream implications visible: which requirements, principles, experiments, or public pages should inherit the PR-FAQ’s argument.