Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Unpacking Amazon’s unique ways of working | Bill Carr (author of Working Backwards)
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Amazon's approach starts with prioritizing customers, working backwards to develop customer-centric solutions.
- Amazon embraced single-threaded leadership, assigning a leader to drive key metrics, increasing ownership and agility.
- The 'disagree and commit' principle fosters open communication and constructive disagreement for improved decision-making.
- Emphasizing the significance of input metrics, Amazon focuses on long-term strategies to improve customer experience and business outcomes.
Deep dives
Starting with Customer Obsession
The main idea is that at Amazon, the approach to decision-making and problem-solving starts with prioritizing customers. By taking the viewpoint of what is best for the customer, they work backwards to develop solutions that meet customer needs. This approach informs the decision-making process and guides the work required to create new solutions.
Implementing the Amazon Approach
Bill Carr, a former Amazon executive, discusses the practices and methods implemented at Amazon to foster innovation and success. These include working backwards, where the focus is on the customer's needs and problems, as well as implementing processes like PR FAQ (Press Release Frequently Asked Questions) for new product development. The iterative nature of these processes involves feedback and review from smaller to larger groups to ensure effective decision-making and prioritization of ideas.
The Power of Single-Threaded Leadership
Amazon embraced the concept of single-threaded leadership to manage their growing complexity. This approach involved assigning a single leader to a team with cross-functional resources dedicated to them. These teams were responsible for driving key metrics within their area, working on specific solutions, and owning their portion of the roadmap. This method allowed for increased ownership, speed, and agility within the organization.
Embracing Disagreement and Commitment
Amazon's principle of 'disagree and commit' encourages open communication and constructive disagreement to improve decision-making. It emphasizes the need for team members to voice their differing perspectives and concerns, providing additional information and viewpoints. However, once all perspectives are heard and understood, team members are expected to commit to the agreed-upon decision and support its implementation, focusing on the core elements that led to the decision.
The Importance of Input and Output Metrics
The podcast episode discusses the concept of input and output metrics and their significance. It highlights the inefficiency of relying on last-minute tactics to meet revenue targets and emphasizes the need to focus on long-term strategies that improve key inputs. The speaker mentions the book 'Good to Great' as a significant influence in shaping their understanding of the importance of identifying and improving these inputs. Overall, the episode stresses the need to measure and improve the specific metrics that directly impact customer experience and business outcomes.
Implementing Scalable Processes for Growth
The podcast episode explores the importance of implementing scalable and repeatable processes for sustainable growth. Drawing on the experiences at Amazon, the speaker emphasizes the need for companies to establish clear structures and decision-making frameworks. They suggest that companies should focus on creating processes that enable innovation and effective decision-making while ensuring that they align with the company's culture and goals. Additionally, the episode highlights the significance of buy-in from top leadership in driving and implementing these changes effectively.
The Bar Raiser Hiring Process
The podcast episode delves into the concept of the Bar Raiser hiring process and its role in enabling successful scaling at Amazon. The Bar Raiser process involves having an impartial and knowledgeable individual (a Bar Raiser) who participates in the interview loop and helps assess candidates. The episode highlights how this process ensures that hiring decisions are not solely based on individual judgment or previous company criteria. It emphasizes the need for commitment and discipline to implement scalable processes in hiring the right talent that fits the company's culture and standards.
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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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/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Bill’s background
(04:26) Amazon’s workplace evolution
(09:54) Amazon’s “fitness function”
(11:44) Single-threaded leadership
(18:07) Implementing a program orientation with single-threaded leadership
(20:16) The GM model vs. single-threaded leadership
(21:31) Functional countermeasures needed for single-threaded leadership
(25:22) Embracing the “disagree and commit” principle
(30:22) Understanding disagreements
(32:41) Deciphering Amazon’s “Leaders are right, a lot” principle
(35:25) An explanation of the working backwards framework
(41:16) PR FAQ process: Amazon’s innovation engine
(44:47) Deconstructing the PR FAQ structure
(43:49) The concentric circle model for sharing PR FAQs
(44:55) The customer problem-solution statement
(47:52) Create a product funnel, not a product tunnel
(51:19) How Amazon promotes action vs. talk
(54:35) Amazon’s flywheel and input metrics
(1:00:51) Signs you’ve got a good input metric
(1:04:23) How mistakes can still be made with working backwards
(1:06:54) Why disagreements aren’t necessarily signs products will fail
(1:08:02) Examples of failed Amazon projects
(1:09:55) Cultivating risk-taking and accepting failure
(1:13:57) Amazon’s “bar-raiser” practice for hiring
(1:18:21) Selecting Amazon’s bar raisers
(1:20:41) Advice on implementing practices from Working Backwards
(1:23:10) Bill’s work as an advisor
(1:26:05) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595
• Jeff Bezos on X: https://twitter.com/jeffbezos
• D.E. Shaw: https://www.deshaw.com/
• Eric Ries’s website: https://theleanstartup.com/
• GM business model: https://fourweekmba.com/general-motors-business-model/
• Rick Dalzell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddalzell/
• The Effective Decision by Peter F. Drucker: https://hbr.org/1967/01/the-effective-decision
• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996
• The Amazon flywheel: https://feedvisor.com/resources/amazon-trends/amazon-flywheel-explained/
• Sixsigma: https://www.6sigma.us/
• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries: https://www.amazon.com/Loonshots-Nurture-Diseases-Transform-Industries/dp/1250185963
• Andy Jassy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-jassy-8b1615/
• Implementing Amazon’s Bar Raiser Process in Hiring: A Quick Guide: https://www.barraiser.com/blogs/implementing-amazons-bar-raiser-process-in-hiring
• Microspeak: The As-Appropriate (AA) interviewer: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20231017-00/?p=108897
• The Practice of Management: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Management-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/0060878975
• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459
• Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
• Seveneves: https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514
• A Gentleman in Moscow: https://www.amazon.com/A-Gentleman-in-Moscow/dp/0143110438
• Dune on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Timoth%C3%A9e-Chalamet/dp/B09LJXY4PH
• A Spy Among Friends: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15565872/
• Zipp 303 Firecrest tubeless disc brake: https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/wh-303-ftld-a1
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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