{"id":1502,"date":"2018-11-11T14:30:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T19:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/?p=1502"},"modified":"2021-01-01T17:31:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T22:31:47","slug":"on-amazon-a-peculiar-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/on-amazon-a-peculiar-company\/","title":{"rendered":"On Amazon &#8211; A Peculiar Company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Disclaimer: I worked as the Head of Banking for Amazon Web Services. This writing does not represent Amazon in any way. Opinions written here are strictly my own.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Amazon has a very strong culture. At other places I&#8217;ve worked, culture is an aspiration at the senior level but took a back seat to more pressing concerns like\u00a0making as much money as possible. Amazon&#8217;s culture is embedded in its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.jobs\/en\/principles\">14 Leadership Principles<\/a> that are a common language and framework that form the basis of everything the company does, from interviews to everyday decisions. You can get a good feeling of the Amazon culture by watching videos of Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. A few good ones are from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xv_vkA0jsyo\">Economic Club of Washington<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Hq89wYzOjfs\">an interview by his brother Mark,<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SCpgKvZB_VQ&amp;t=2051s\">the Axel Springer Award<\/a>, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x5KMvWfPy78\">60 Minutes Story about Amazon from 1999<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Having such a strong culture can seem peculiar to outsiders. At my first interview, I was asked, &#8220;Why do you want to work at our peculiar company?&#8221; At first, I didn&#8217;t understand.\u00a0Over time I&#8217;ve learned that peculiarity is a good thing. Jeff Bezos says, &#8220;As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.\u201d At Amazon, we&#8217;re dedicated to driving forward innovation even if it makes us look different from others. We pride\u00a0ourselves on doing the right thing (the smart thing) even if it looks peculiar to others.<\/p>\n<p>Here are\u00a0some peculiar things about Amazon, including the Amazon vocabulary.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Narratives.<\/strong>\u00a0Amazon doesn&#8217;t use PowerPoints in internal meetings to make decisions, we use written documents called Narratives.\u00a0Before joining I thought this was something Amazon was just trying out, but the company has been doing this for over a decade. PowerPoint is a tool for selling. At a company you don&#8217;t want people selling each other on ideas, you want people to discuss ideas to come up with the best possible solutions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Working Backwards.<\/strong>\u00a0This may be my favorite peculiar concept. At most companies, a product is created by employees based on what the company wants to build. Product managers take into account all the stakeholders decisions including customers and senior leadership.\u00a0 Working Backwards starts with what the customer wants. Amazon starts with a mock customer facing press release, answers to questions that the customer might have and user documentation. This creates the core requirements because if it&#8217;s not relevant to the customer, it shouldn&#8217;t be built. For more details, Forbes did a pretty good job of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/innovatorsdna\/2017\/08\/08\/how-does-amazon-stay-at-day-one\/#3cd34d367e4d\">describing the Working Backwards<\/a>\u00a0method.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Day 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Amazon is obsessed with Day 1. Jeff Bezos works in a\u00a0building named Day 1. In each\u00a0shareholder letter,\u00a0Jeff includes <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.aboutamazon.com\/company-news\/amazons-original-1997-letter-to-shareholders\">his original 1996 letter<\/a>\u00a0which highlights that Amazon, and the internet, is still at Day 1. It&#8217;s an important concept for Amazon because customers will never assume that things are good enough. Companies that rest on their laurels and assume they&#8217;ve &#8220;made it&#8221; will eventually fail because customers will continue to look for something better. Jeff writes about this in his <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.aboutamazon.com\/company-news\/2016-letter-to-shareholders\">2016 letter to shareowners<\/a>. At Amazon, it&#8217;s always Day 1.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Two-Way Doors.<\/strong>\u00a0In the <a href=\"https:\/\/s2.q4cdn.com\/299287126\/files\/doc_financials\/annual\/2015-Letter-to-Shareholders.PDF\">2015 letter to shareowners<\/a> Jeff defines the difference between one-way and two-way doors. &#8220;Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly \u2014\u00a0irreversible one-way doors\u00a0\u2014 and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don\u2019t like what you see on the other side, you can\u2019t get back to where you were before.\u00a0But most decisions aren\u2019t like that\u00a0\u2014 they are changeable, reversible\u00a0\u2014 they\u2019re two-way doors. If you\u2019ve made a suboptimal decision, you don\u2019t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. These decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. We are an enterprise software company that enables other companies to build things. You can learn more about AWS in this <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/2018\/11\/how-aws-reinvented-the-internet-and-became-amazons-cash-cow.html\">recent interview that our CEO, Andy Jassy, gave about the business<\/a>. Also, if you&#8217;re looking to interview at Amazon, there&#8217;s a great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.jobs\/en\/landing_pages\/interviewing-at-amazon\">official guide<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/how-interview-amazon-leadership-david-anderson\/\">unofficial guide<\/a> to interviewing at Amazon. To feel comfortable on AWS, build your own small website on S3 or EC2 with training from A Cloud Guru. Udemy normally has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udemy.com\/course\/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate\/\">discounted Software Architect Course from A Cloud Guru for about $20<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disclaimer: I worked as the Head of Banking for Amazon Web Services. This writing does not represent Amazon in any way. Opinions written here are strictly my own. Amazon has a very strong culture. At other places I&#8217;ve worked, culture is an aspiration at the senior level but took a back seat to more pressing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-management","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8wCkz-oe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3937,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/six-amazonian-secrets-you-can-use-from-an-amazon-insider\/","url_meta":{"origin":1502,"position":0},"title":"Nine Amazonian Secrets You Can Use (from an Amazon Insider)","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"October 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was the Head of Banking at Amazon Web Services, I was able to peek behind the curtain and learn how Amazon really works. 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This writing does not represent the views of Amazon and opinions written here are strictly my own. Also, I'll admit that this post wouldn't be very interesting if it wasn't about Amazon; however, it does highlight\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Amazon-logo-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9235,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/the-perils-of-magical-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1502,"position":2},"title":"The Perils of Magical Thinking","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"May 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It's tempting to want something so bad that you believe you can will it to happen. Instead of examining risks and continually examining and reducing them, projects just forge ahead. This happens at work all the time. But most interestingly, there are some things that humans want so bad, like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Life Lessons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/life-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6732,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/happy-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":1502,"position":3},"title":"Happy 2022!","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"January 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I wanted to give you all a meaningful holiday gift. This is difficult during normal times, and even more difficult during the pandemic. I\u2019ve always admired people who can give holiday gifts that are truly unique. Designers do it best. Last year, I wrote about Thomas Heatherwick\u2019s Christmas gifts. 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And it\u2019s not like I was working crazy hours\u2014I\u2019ve worked much longer hours\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/DRgAB30VQAAoY2i.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1402,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/the-future-of-payments\/","url_meta":{"origin":1502,"position":5},"title":"The Future of Payments","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"August 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Disclaimer: I work at Amazon but this writing does not represent Amazon in any way. Opinions written here are strictly my own. When I was working at Citi Cards, I was under the impression that people were spending a lot of time figuring out what credit cards they should have.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Product Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Product Management","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/product-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Future-Payment-Companies-2-1024x723.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Future-Payment-Companies-2-1024x723.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Future-Payment-Companies-2-1024x723.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4618,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions\/4618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}