Start with the end in mind

A clinician's guide to working backwards

Author

Lauren Curtis
July 09, 2025

Hey Health Techies!

Let’s talk about something big tech likes to brag about — and how, surprise surprise, you’ve basically been doing it your whole clinical career.

You’ve probably heard of Amazon’s Working Backwards method. It’s their crown jewel for product development, credited for everything from Prime to Alexa. At Amazon, building something new starts with one question:

👉 What does the customer really want?

It starts by obsessing over the end user’s problem. Only then do they work backwards to figure out how to solve it.

Sound familiar? It should. Because you, as a clinician, have been working backwards your entire career — just with patients instead of customers.

Here’s how Amazon breaks it down (and how your clinical brain is already wired for it).

📄 Step 1: Write a Press Release

Amazon: Before engineers write a single line of code, the product team drafts a mock press release. The purpose is to explain the big idea at hand and get everyone aligned around the vision. It’s written in plain language and describes exactly what problem is being solved, how the solution works, and most importantly why it matters.

Clinicians: Every time you explain a care plan to a patient or family, you’re distilling complex ideas into clear, relatable language. You’re painting a picture of what life looks like on the other side of treatment. You’re basically writing the press release every day: “Here’s what we’re going to do and why it will help.”

👂 Step 2: Draft FAQs & Anticipate Objections

Amazon: After the press release, the team writes an internal FAQ. They poke holes in their idea: What might confuse customers? What risks exist? What if the outcomes aren’t as promised?

Clinicians: Think about informed consent. Or those conversations where you go through all the potential side effects, complications, or reasons a treatment might fail. You anticipate concerns and help patients weigh benefits vs. risks. You’re a pro at FAQs, because your patients ask them daily — “What if this doesn’t work? What are my other options?”

🛠 Step 3: Define User Experience & Work Backward

Amazon: Only after they nail the press release and FAQs do they sketch out user journeys. What does it feel like to be the customer? How do they discover the product, use it, get value from it? They build backward from that ideal experience.

Clinicians: Every care plan is a backwards map from the patient’s goals.

  • Patient wants to avoid dialysis? You start at that outcome, then work backwards through BP control, medication adherence, diet changes, routine labs.

  • Want to preserve mobility after a stroke? You plan therapy milestones that trace back from long-term independence.

🔍 Step 4: Only Then Build the Plan & Metrics

Amazon: With all that done, they finally write requirements. What does the product actually need to do? How will success be measured? What actions will the team need to take in the next days, weeks, and months to execute the vision.

Clinicians: That’s what you do on a daily basis — writing orders, setting target lab values, scheduling follow-ups. Defining how you’ll know if your plan is working. If a patient’s A1c drops, if their pain score goes down, if they’re discharged without readmission, etc.

🩺 Why this matters for you in health tech

When clinicians try branching into nonclinical work, they often worry they’re not “strategic enough” or “only know how to do patient care.”

The truth? You’ve been a product strategist your whole career. The product just happened to be someone’s health.

✅ You know how to start with the end goal (patient outcome) and work backwards to create a plan.
✅ You’ve built trust by anticipating questions and risks.
✅ You measure success and pivot if needed.

It’s all the same muscle, just applied in a new way.

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Until next time,

Lauren

P.S. I’m opening the doors soon to the Hey Health Tech Community—a cozy corner of the internet where clinicians like you learn how healthcare tech actually works (minus the jargon and overwhelm). If you’ve been curious about AI, digital health, or how to keep your skills future-proof, this is your chance to explore it all alongside peers who get it.

👉 The waitlist is officially open. Get on it, and you’ll be first to know when we launch (plus get some early bird perks). Your future self will thank you.