Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

invention works well where differentiation matters.

Now, this may be one of those moments when you’re thinking, “But we don’t have a Jeff.” The good news is that you don’t need a Jeff to make this type of decision. You only need to ruthlessly stick to the simple-to-understand (but sometimes hard-to-follow) principles and process that insist on customer obsession, encourage thinking long term, value

When we have invented, our long-term, patient approach—driven by customer need—has been fundamentally different from the more conventional “skills-forward” approach to invention, in which a company looks for new business opportunities that neatly fit with its existing skills and competencies. While this approach can be rewarding, there is a fundame

Many companies that decide to enter a business area in which they have little internal expertise or capability choose to outsource, as happened in the early days of e-commerce when brick-and-mortar retailers created their first online retail sites. They brought in third-party developers, consultants, and sometimes both. This approach enabled them t

The method that Amazon interviewers use for drilling down goes by the acronym STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result): “What was the situation?” “What were you tasked with?” “What actions did you take?” “What was the result?”

Edward Tufte sums up the benefits of narratives over PP with his own blunt clarity: “PowerPoint becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of PowerPoint makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”

Input metrics measure things that, done right, bring about the desired results in your output metrics.

But Jeff felt that if we tried to manage digital media as a part of the physical media business, it would never be a priority. The bigger business carried the company after all, and it would always get the most attention. Steve told me that getting digital right was highly important to Jeff, and he wanted Steve to focus on nothing else. Steve wante

You’ll notice a pattern of trial and error with metrics in the points above, and this is an essential part of the process. The key is to persistently test and debate as you go. For example, Jeff was concerned that the Fast Track In Stock metric was too narrow. Jeff Wilke argued that the metric would yield broad systematic improvements across the re