Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

by Tony Fadell

To write a good press release you have to focus. The press release is meant to hook people—it’s how you get journalists interested in what you’re making. You have to catch their attention. You have to be succinct and interesting, highlight the most important and essential things that your product can do. You can’t just list everything you want to make—you have to prioritize. When you write a press release you say, “Here. This. This is what’s newsworthy. This is what really matters.” So spend some time developing as great a press release as you can. Consult with marketing and PR people if you have to. They’ll help you trim it down to the essentials. Then weeks or months or years later, as you’re getting close to finishing, as you’re debating what makes it in, what gets cut, what matters, what doesn’t—take out your press release. Read it.