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“Working backwards” means focusing on the customer experience first and then identifying and overcoming obstacles that prevent us from…

“Working backwards” means focusing on the customer experience first and then identifying and overcoming obstacles that prevent us from achieving it.

This is a popular idea in the culture. It’s been attributed to both Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, and is so strongly identified with Amazon that it’s given as the title of a book about the company. Like many good ideas in our culture, to those trying to live it, it can seem both obvious and impossible at the same time.

For me, the most important thing about working backwards is to agree that the customer experience is the most important thing for the team to focus on. I’ve noticed that companies that are not completely aligned on customer focus will struggle to make choices that prioritize the customer experience over executive comfort.

I was once part of a team that was concerned with enabling “ways to pay.” Customers were asking for a specific electronic payment option as an alternative to credit cards. This method also enabled a rapid checkout that customers loved. Compared to credit cards, processing costs were a little bit higher.

The potential benefit to the business was significant. Research promised lower cart abandonment and higher conversion rates, and better adoption in global markets where credit card use is infrequent.

The implementation was blocked by other stakeholders, who couldn’t stomach the higher processing charges. This was understandable, as their priorities were set on margins and costs. The project languished for a long time. Customer focus was lost.

In a customer-focused company with a “working backwards” mentality, this shouldn’t happen. We center the experience that impacts our customer, and we band together to overcome the obstacles.

This is not a magic wand we can wave that makes hard things easy. There’s work to do to quantify each obstacle and contextualize it against the customer-focused outcome.

For example, a slightly higher processing fee might be absorbed by our margin, by a higher conversion rate, or by better customer acquisition overseas. There’s math to do. Maybe a lower margin adds a little upwards pressure on our prices. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

A Product Manager often has to unwind an idea to compare it financially to the status quo. Finding that you’ve added value in a way that suggests the need to raise prices might be a sign that you are doing your job!

I’m simplifying. But when working backwards, some of the most difficult but important work is to quantify how a product idea relates to the financial status quo.

Sometimes this work feels obvious and impossible at the same time. Other times it’s a slam dunk. Either way, it’s how you lead the team to making the best decisions for the customer.