Ep. 295 AWS leadership

In the past 10 years, Amazon Web Services has gone from a niche player in the federal government to being responsible for billions in sales.

One key aspect of this is how Amazon integrates leadership with innovation to address complex federal requirements.

Today, we sit down with Andrew Christian to get an overview of concepts like customer obsession, working backwards, and the sixteen leadership principles that AWS implements to accomplish that drastic growth.

ONE Customer-focus

In the commercial marketplace, the concept of being "customer-focused" is certainly not breaking news. However, as Christian explains, AWS tries to understand (almost obsessively) what the requirements are for federal systems.

No, technically, they are not "customers," but they are the end users for any technology project. This focus has given AWS remarkable success in the commercial world, and when they apply it to federal technology, they can succeed where others have failed.

TWO Working Backwards

Christian explains that "working backwards" is a concept where a team is forced to write a mock press release and FAQ for a future project. This is before they build anything. This helps to clarify the customers' needs by identifying gaps early.

THREE encouraging innovations

Many describe innovation as failing fast, then recovering. That may hold up in a commercial application where lives are not at stake.

During the interview, Andrew Christian differentiates between the importance of making quick, reversible decisions (two-way doors) versus long-term, impactful ones (one-way doors).

He encourages federal agencies to adopt these principles to enhance their innovation and adapt to a world co constantly changing technology.

Connect to John Gilroy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/

Want to listen to other episodes? www.Federaltechpodcast.com