Working Backwards Template
Use our free working backwards template to determine whether a new product or feature is worth building.
Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies
About the Working Backwards Template
Are you looking for a way to find out if a new product is worth building? Or perhaps you have a new product in mind, but you’re not sure how to get it from start to finish. The working backwards template could be just what you need. The working backwards method allows teams to work in reverse. Starting with the finished product in mind, this method will help you visualize the steps you need to take to bring it to life. It’ll also give you a chance to figure out if the product is even worth launching in the first place.
What is the working backwards approach?
Working backwards is a framework for thinking about a product without a detailed roadmap. Your product team starts with the customer in mind to launch your product in a way that truly serves them.
Amazon pioneered this approach to product development. It’s based on one of their leadership principles celebrating customer obsession. The method requires anyone with new product ideas to articulate the objective as clearly as possible. These ideas can take many forms, from a blog post to a press release. The only requirement is that it envisions the product or feature launch as if it were happening today.
The model also requires product managers to write objective documents to sell their idea internally. If the idea impresses leadership, the next step is to map out what the team needs to launch.
What is a working backwards template?
The working backwards template allows teams to outline their product development journey. Templates can vary, but they generally all include the following information:
What the final product/outcome will be. This is the starting point for the framework. It’ll outline what the final product will be or where you plan to finish your product launch — for example, a product press release.
The available opportunities. This stage will help you figure out if the product is worth pursuing.
Challenges and solutions. Here, you’ll outline any hurdles you’ll need to overcome to get shareholders on board and keep customers happy.
Roadmap. You’ll create a high-level product roadmap to visualize product development.
Task assignment. You can now assign tasks to bring your product to life.
Using a working backwards template is helpful for various reasons. You don’t have to worry about starting from scratch with a ready-made template. You can simply input relevant information into an intuitive and user-friendly format.
It also helps teams collaborate. Teams can access the template online, and add comments, share information, and collaborate virtually, which is especially helpful for remote teams.
Create a working backwards framework with Miro
Miro is the perfect tool to create and share a working backwards framework. Select this working backwards template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
1. Start with a challenge statement. A challenge statement outlines a problem you’re facing and how you plan to solve it. Ask yourself what the challenge (or opportunity) is for your customer to create a challenge statement that keeps the customer in mind (otherwise known as a customer problem statement).
2. Identify the ideal future state. Talk with your team about new business models and structures that you could use to make new major products possible. There’s no right answer, so feel free to use sticky notes to identify the possibilities.
3. Map actions from your ideal future state to the present day. How long will it take to get from where you are now to your ideal state? Answering this question will help your team have realistic conversations about resourcing, processes, systems, and implementation.
4. Plan your next steps. Once you know the steps needed to get to your ideal future state, you can build a backlog of tasks. Each task can be prioritized, and ownership assigned to a team member.
What to include in your working backwards template
Working backwards templates don’t always have the same information. It depends on who your customers are, any challenges you’re facing, and the product or service you want to launch. Ideally, you’d aim to describe the following:
Who’s your customer? Identifying your target customer allows you to make informed decisions about your product and how to market it effectively. Use our buyer persona template if you need a hand.
What is the customer opportunity or challenge? How will your new product or service help customers overcome their challenges? Knowing this will make sure that your product or service fills a gap in the market.
What is the most important customer benefit? What is the main benefit for customers when using your product or service? If you want to offer your customers something that will benefit them, you need to know their top priority.
What are your customers’ needs and wants? What are your customers searching for? Again, knowing this will ensure you produce something that meets customer needs.
What should the customer experience look like? Launching a new product or service can impact the customer experience, so keep this in mind throughout the process. Use our customer journey map to better understand the customer experience.
Embrace this document as a living, iterative team resource.
When to use the working backwards approach
There are a few situations in which you might use the working backwards method. Let’s take a look at what they are:
To solve a customer problem. Working backwards encourages product teams to first solve a customer pain point to inform their product development.
To see if a new idea is worth it. If you’re not sure whether a new product or feature idea is worth the time investment, working backwards can help you test it. The framework can also shift your thinking to expected results rather than implementation.
To see things from the customer’s point of view. The framework will help you stay focused, see things customer-centrically, and communicate in plain language before you build anything.
To visualize challenges and opportunities. Using this model, you’ll see all the hurdles and opportunities you might come across throughout the process. This helps you identify areas of growth and prepare to overcome these challenges.
Get started with this template right now.
Product Management - Product Flow
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
Product Management - Product Flow template enables product managers to visualize and streamline product development processes. By mapping out key stages, tasks, and dependencies, this template enhances workflow transparency and coordination. With features for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing resource allocation, it empowers teams to improve efficiency and accelerate product delivery. This template serves as a valuable tool for ensuring smooth product development and launch processes, ultimately driving better outcomes.
Customer Journey Map Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Mapping, Product Management
A customer journey map (CJM) is a visual representation of your customer’s experience. It allows you to capture the path that a customer follows when they buy a product, sign up for a service, or otherwise interact with your site. Most maps include a specific persona, outlines their customer experience from beginning to end, and captures the potential emotional highs and lows of interacting with the product or service. Use this template to easily create customer journey maps for projects of all kinds.
Data Migration Plan Template
Works best for:
Data Migration, Planning
The Data Migration Plan Template is a useful tool for any data migration project, providing a simple and flexible structure. The template outlines the various stages of data migration and can be customized to meet the specific needs of your project. This ensures that the plan remains relevant and effective regardless of the scale or complexity of the migration.
Porter's Five Forces Template
Works best for:
Leadership, Strategic Planning, Market Research
Developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, Porter’s Five Forces has become one of the most popular and highly regarded business strategy tools available for teams. Use Porter’s Five Forces to measure the strength of your current competition and decide which markets you might be able to move into. Porter’s Five Forces include: supplier power, buyer power, rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the threat of substitute products and services, and the threat of new entrants.
Agile Product Roadmap
Works best for:
Roadmap, Planning, Mapping
The Agile Product Roadmap template enables teams to visualize and communicate the strategic direction of their product development in an agile environment. It allows for flexibility and adaptation to changing requirements while providing a clear overview of priorities and timelines. By incorporating feedback loops and iterative planning, teams can ensure alignment with stakeholder expectations and deliver value incrementally.
Impact/Effort Matrix Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Strategic Planning, Prioritization
Growing organizations have countless to-do’s and only so many hours in a day (or weeks before a big launch) to get them done. That’s where an impact effort matrix comes in. It gives you a quick visual guide to help prioritize your tasks and know exactly what’s worth doing. Using our template, you can create a matrix that organizes your activities into four main categories: quick wins that are low effort, effort-intensive projects that provide long-term returns, fill-ins that are low effort but low value, and time-wasters.