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The PRFAQ Framework: Adapting Amazon’s Innovation Framework to Work for You
Are you ready to transform your idea into an
extraordinary idea
? Do you wish you and your team achieve
better results with fewer missteps
? Are you looking to
inspire people to act
? If so, The PRFAQ Framework is the book you’ve been looking for.
Innovators are everywhere. Executive, founders, product/program leaders, researchers, professors, engineers, and others can define and deliver a vision and a strategy to innovate. Until now, they didn’t have the proper tools to help them engage with others to think critically about an idea, better articulate them, and inspire people to act. Business Plans are too verbose and abstract. OKRs and Product Requirements Document don’t capture strategy or purpose well. Pitch decks and presentations are shallow, don’t require critical thinking, leading to the illusion that discussions and decisions happened.
The PRFAQ Framework book builds on Amazon’s successful PRFAQ (Press Release + Frequently Asked Questions) framework that’s broadly used within Amazon to discuss, develop, and decide initiatives within the company, large or small.
Marcelo provides a step-by-step guide on the power of writing (and reading) as a thinking tool, how to write with precision, what the PRFAQ narrative looks like, and the method to go from the spark of an idea to a viable and valuable innovation for the customer.
This book is ideal
Aspiring and existing founders in search of a powerful way to define and communicate their vision and strategy to investors, co-founders, and customers.
Product and program leaders looking to improve alignment and outcomes.
Executives seeking clearer vision and cohesive strategy.
Researchers and innovators seeking support and funding for their initiatives.
MBA Professors teaching strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship who want students to learn a modern and practical framework they can use in their job.
“The narrative of what you’re building and why is the ultimate forcing function for alignment, and The PRFAQ Framework book is an indispensable tool that teams can use to develop and ship products people love. In this book, Calbucci chronicles the PRFAQ approach and how it helps us make ideas happen.“ — Scott Belsky, Founder of Behance; CPO, Adobe; Author of The Messy Middle.
“This is beautifully done both because it explains the PRFAQ process better than anywhere I’ve seen and it is a demonstration of the power of clear writing.“ — Ravi Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Outpace; CPO at Tinder; Product Director at Meta.
“Being a startup founder means making difficult decisions under high uncertainty. Marcelo has masterfully adapted Amazon’s PRFAQ process into a turnkey toolkit for framing, exploring, and refining strategic startup decisions.“ — Kevin Dick, Managing Director at Right Side Capital.
Innovators are everywhere. Executive, founders, product/program leaders, researchers, professors, engineers, and others can define and deliver a vision and a strategy to innovate. Until now, they didn’t have the proper tools to help them engage with others to think critically about an idea, better articulate them, and inspire people to act. Business Plans are too verbose and abstract. OKRs and Product Requirements Document don’t capture strategy or purpose well. Pitch decks and presentations are shallow, don’t require critical thinking, leading to the illusion that discussions and decisions happened.
The PRFAQ Framework book builds on Amazon’s successful PRFAQ (Press Release + Frequently Asked Questions) framework that’s broadly used within Amazon to discuss, develop, and decide initiatives within the company, large or small.
Marcelo provides a step-by-step guide on the power of writing (and reading) as a thinking tool, how to write with precision, what the PRFAQ narrative looks like, and the method to go from the spark of an idea to a viable and valuable innovation for the customer.
This book is ideal
Aspiring and existing founders in search of a powerful way to define and communicate their vision and strategy to investors, co-founders, and customers.
Product and program leaders looking to improve alignment and outcomes.
Executives seeking clearer vision and cohesive strategy.
Researchers and innovators seeking support and funding for their initiatives.
MBA Professors teaching strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship who want students to learn a modern and practical framework they can use in their job.
“The narrative of what you’re building and why is the ultimate forcing function for alignment, and The PRFAQ Framework book is an indispensable tool that teams can use to develop and ship products people love. In this book, Calbucci chronicles the PRFAQ approach and how it helps us make ideas happen.“ — Scott Belsky, Founder of Behance; CPO, Adobe; Author of The Messy Middle.
“This is beautifully done both because it explains the PRFAQ process better than anywhere I’ve seen and it is a demonstration of the power of clear writing.“ — Ravi Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Outpace; CPO at Tinder; Product Director at Meta.
“Being a startup founder means making difficult decisions under high uncertainty. Marcelo has masterfully adapted Amazon’s PRFAQ process into a turnkey toolkit for framing, exploring, and refining strategic startup decisions.“ — Kevin Dick, Managing Director at Right Side Capital.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published January 5, 2025
8 people are currently reading
824 people want to read
About the author
Marcelo Calbucci
1 book9 followersMarcelo Calbucci is an entrepreneur, innovator, and technologist. He’s been building software products for over thirty years, having sold his first software at age fourteen. He has worked at Microsoft and Amazon, leading software engineering, product, data science, and UX. He has founded six startups in Seattle and London and launched a dozen tech projects. He’s the inventor of eleven patents. Marcelo has been a community builder in Seattle, organizing dozens of meetups, events, and conferences, and he has written over one thousand blog posts and articles on his website and other tech publications.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2025
this book is an essential read. just think if you have a great idea but you don't know how to make it work.
this PRFAQ framework is a guide to turn the tables.
it is implemented on amazon.
this book with so many examples and each chapter it tells how to achieve the goal.
liked the detailed writing.
very good and simple narration.
this PRFAQ framework is a guide to turn the tables.
it is implemented on amazon.
this book with so many examples and each chapter it tells how to achieve the goal.
liked the detailed writing.
very good and simple narration.
June 28, 2025
As a product management professional, I have been using the PR/FAQ as an innovation tool for over ten years now, so while I wouldn't consider myself an expert on how Amazon does it, I do know how useful the artifact can be. Along the way, I have also adapted the format and its supporting apparatus of reviews to emphasize fewer of the peculiarities of how Amazon does things, since you can't simply cargo-cult processes from one company to another and expect them to work the same way. I summarized my experiences in a short blog post several years ago, so I was excited when Calbucci reached out to me and offered a free copy of his new book on the topic in exchange for a review.
Bearing in mind that I have the curse of knowledge, the strongest parts of this book are when Calbucci discusses the meat of the framework: how to actually execute the PR/FAQ, why the format is intentionally rigid, etc. This is essentially Part II of the book. I found the weakest part of the book the preamble: the 40-odd pages in Part I where the author explains the philosophy behind the PR/FAQ and the power of written narratives over PowerPoint, etc. It's not that this is not important information, but (a) the argument has already been made by others (e.g. in Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon) and (b) it could have been shorter. Busy professionals want to get to tactics.
The second weakest part of the book -- and this is much less weak, to be honest -- is in all the ancillary information in Part III about how to build up to a PR/FAQ through product discovery, as well as how to both give and receive feedback on the PR/FAQ. Again, much of the information on how to conduct hypothesis-driven discovery has been covered at length elsewhere. The inside baseball about how Calbucci himself "collected string" (or what he calls building a storyboard) for the book itself is interesting from a meta-analysis standpoint but also unnecessary. It would have worked fine as an appendix, though. Part III isn't an entire write-off: the two chapters on how to facilitate the review process of PR/FAQs and other narrative documents was valuable it its own right. However, they could have been combined into a single one on receiving feedback well and giving feedback well, instead of the awkwardly-titled "the learn-write-listen loop" for the former.
Overall, this is a decent standalone book about the PR/FAQ process, but I would recommend either reading Working Backwards first and then skipping to Part II, or, if you are an IC PM working on a team that uses PR/FAQ, using your manager to explain to you the philosophy / best practices / rationale behind it, which will save a lot of time.
Bearing in mind that I have the curse of knowledge, the strongest parts of this book are when Calbucci discusses the meat of the framework: how to actually execute the PR/FAQ, why the format is intentionally rigid, etc. This is essentially Part II of the book. I found the weakest part of the book the preamble: the 40-odd pages in Part I where the author explains the philosophy behind the PR/FAQ and the power of written narratives over PowerPoint, etc. It's not that this is not important information, but (a) the argument has already been made by others (e.g. in Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon) and (b) it could have been shorter. Busy professionals want to get to tactics.
The second weakest part of the book -- and this is much less weak, to be honest -- is in all the ancillary information in Part III about how to build up to a PR/FAQ through product discovery, as well as how to both give and receive feedback on the PR/FAQ. Again, much of the information on how to conduct hypothesis-driven discovery has been covered at length elsewhere. The inside baseball about how Calbucci himself "collected string" (or what he calls building a storyboard) for the book itself is interesting from a meta-analysis standpoint but also unnecessary. It would have worked fine as an appendix, though. Part III isn't an entire write-off: the two chapters on how to facilitate the review process of PR/FAQs and other narrative documents was valuable it its own right. However, they could have been combined into a single one on receiving feedback well and giving feedback well, instead of the awkwardly-titled "the learn-write-listen loop" for the former.
Overall, this is a decent standalone book about the PR/FAQ process, but I would recommend either reading Working Backwards first and then skipping to Part II, or, if you are an IC PM working on a team that uses PR/FAQ, using your manager to explain to you the philosophy / best practices / rationale behind it, which will save a lot of time.
March 11, 2025
"We must debate and decide ideas on their merit, not on the presentation skills of those who deliver them."
The PRFAQ Framework is a helpful guide for writing clearly and effectively. It's based on Amazon's successful method of sharing ideas and making decisions. The book shows how to use PRFAQ to develop and present ideas in a clear and structured way.
The author presents a well-structured, insightful guide that bridges corporate innovation strategies with real-world applications. His writing is clear and engaging, making complex business strategies accessible. The step-by-step breakdown of PRFAQ ensures that we can apply the method immediately.
However, some sections were repetitive, emphasizing the same points over and over, and I think more detailed case studies from non-Amazon companies would enhance the applicability of the framework.
Overall, it is a valuable read for anyone looking to communicate ideas effectively in business and innovation. Highly recommended for entrepreneurs, executives, and product managers seeking a structured approach to strategic planning.
The PRFAQ Framework is a helpful guide for writing clearly and effectively. It's based on Amazon's successful method of sharing ideas and making decisions. The book shows how to use PRFAQ to develop and present ideas in a clear and structured way.
The author presents a well-structured, insightful guide that bridges corporate innovation strategies with real-world applications. His writing is clear and engaging, making complex business strategies accessible. The step-by-step breakdown of PRFAQ ensures that we can apply the method immediately.
However, some sections were repetitive, emphasizing the same points over and over, and I think more detailed case studies from non-Amazon companies would enhance the applicability of the framework.
Overall, it is a valuable read for anyone looking to communicate ideas effectively in business and innovation. Highly recommended for entrepreneurs, executives, and product managers seeking a structured approach to strategic planning.
July 8, 2025
Before I started reading this, I had a lot of questions. I understood that this book is designed for those who have an idea, say for a product or business, and desire to put it to use.
I felt this book was very detailed, and should tell readers everything they want to know. I did find it all a bit mind-boggling, and I wasn't quite sure how to make use of all the information presented to me. I did find the general tone of the book to be encouraging and motivating, and there are "key takeaways" summaries at the end of each chapter.
Maybe I could make full use of this book, if only I had the kind of idea mentioned at the beginning.
I felt this book was very detailed, and should tell readers everything they want to know. I did find it all a bit mind-boggling, and I wasn't quite sure how to make use of all the information presented to me. I did find the general tone of the book to be encouraging and motivating, and there are "key takeaways" summaries at the end of each chapter.
Maybe I could make full use of this book, if only I had the kind of idea mentioned at the beginning.
May 7, 2025
The author worked for a couple of years at Amazon and decided to spread the gospel of “press release first” to the masses. Basically, it’s the case of someone finding a hammer 😊
I didn’t find any mentioning that PRFAQ cures cancer, but wouldn’t be surprised to find it.
Overall, this topic does not really deserve a book unless you are preparing for a PM job at Amazon…maybe.
I didn’t find any mentioning that PRFAQ cures cancer, but wouldn’t be surprised to find it.
Overall, this topic does not really deserve a book unless you are preparing for a PM job at Amazon…maybe.
October 7, 2025
Great and educational manual about PR/FAQ.
As someone that doesnt use it, it was fascinating and definitely interesting to read about the potential of this tool.
The way the book is written certainly makes me curious about trying it!
As someone that doesnt use it, it was fascinating and definitely interesting to read about the potential of this tool.
The way the book is written certainly makes me curious about trying it!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews