Navigating Internal Communication and Metrics | 19min snip from Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth

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Unpacking Amazon’s unique ways of working | Bill Carr (author of Working Backwards)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

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CHAPTER

Navigating Internal Communication and Metrics

This chapter focuses on the structuring of internal documents, particularly press releases, emphasizing clarity and adaptability to modern communication styles. It discusses the importance of input and output metrics in evaluating business performance and the shift from short-term fixes to long-term strategies for growth. The insights provided illustrate the challenges organizations face in resource allocation, idea execution, and enhancing customer experiences.

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Bill Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. With a background at Amazon of over 15 years, Bill played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s global digital music and video ventures, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive in Residence with Maveron, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. He later served as the chief operating officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today he’s the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC, where he helps companies implement Amazon’s time-tested management strategies. In this episode, we discuss:

• What exactly “working backwards” is, and how you do it

• Why having “single-threaded leaders” is so effective

• Inside Amazon’s intense product review process

• How to actually follow the “disagree and commit” principle

• The thinking behind the principle “Leaders are right, a lot”

• Input vs. output metrics

• Fostering a culture of risk-taking and innovation

• The role and responsibilities of a “bar raiser” in your hiring, and how it significantly improves the success rate of new hires

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Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/unpacking-amazons-unique-ways-of-working-bill-carr-author-of-working-backwards/

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Where to find Bill Carr:

• X: https://twitter.com/BillCarr89

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/

• Website: https://www.workingbackwards.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/