Amazon's approach to building product: customer obsession, high velocity decision making and high quality decisions.

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
@kintan
Building at Amazon

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“Good intentions do not work,
good mechanisms do.”
-Jeff Bezos

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
next 45 mins:
Scaling Amazon’s approach to build products and businesses
Case Study: Working Backwards
Activity: Craft/Review a Working Backwards document (30 mins)

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Amazon’s approach to build products

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Amazon’s approach:
High
Quality
Decisions
High Velocity
Decision
Customer
Obsession
Think in bets: I bet that by doing X we’ll see Y.

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Customer obsession: listening posts
Metrics
User
Research
Benchmarking
Customer
feedback
Macro
Trends
A product builder’s job is to talk, but she gets paid to listen.

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Customer obsession + high quality decision making

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Quality: know when to experiment vs not
1. Large Bets (RAT: Riskiest Assumption Test)
2. Small Bets (experiment)
using ICE (Impact, Confidence, Effort) for prioritization

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Business challenge
How do we ensure that thousands of product manages at Amazon
make customer-centric and high-quality decisions fast?

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Working backwards mechanism

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Case study

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Music store >> streaming
2014
2013
2011
2007
1998
2016

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: Automatically get the MP3 before the CD arrives in mail

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Working backwards

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Working backwards: (mock) press release
• Clearly state the customer problem/benefit
• Use customer-centric language
• Include a customer quote
• Think Big
• Keep it to one page

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Mock press release:

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Actual Press Coverage

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working backwards: FAQs
• Consider all stakeholders
• Add more throughout the lifecycle
• Who, why, why now, what, how, when

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working backwards: a mechanism
writing enforces
clarity of thought

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Working backwards: visuals

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working backwards: discussions

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working backwards: providing feedback
1. Provide candid feedback - respectfully challenge
2. If you don't understand something, speak up
3. Don't compromise for the sake of social cohesion

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working backwards: mistakes I’ve made
1. Journaling: Use it just to document what you’ve already decided
to do, instead of getting clarity.
2. Underestimate collaboration: Seek and acknowledge
perspectives from all stakeholders even if you disagree with some.
3. Process becomes the focus: Resist proxies. Delivering results
for customers is the high order bit.

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Activity

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Single Device Plan
Get the most out of your Alexa
device!
Only $3.99 per month!

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Activity:
Problem: Customers who listen to music only on Alexa don’t have
a way to keep track of new music by their favorite artists

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Activity: Craft a mock press release
1. Headline (write last)
2. Problem / Opportunity Statement
3. Customer Quote

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Activity: Discussion
1. Is it clear who the customer is?
2. Is the customer problem or opportunity clear?
3. Does the customer testimonial reinforce the value?

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Artist Engagement

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Summary
High
Quality
Decisions
High Velocity
Decision
Customer
Obsession
Good intentions don’t work, mechanisms do.

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ProductLeadersSummit2018
Thank you
@kintan