Five Random Things I Heard in Amazon Meetings –Month Two Edition

1)     “When you have a billion customers, there’re no small decisions.”

“To achieve high velocity, Bezos empowers his organization and categorizes all decisions into two types. Type 1 decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible—one-way doors… If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. Such decisions should go through a “heavyweight” process—being made slowly and methodically with great deliberations and consultation—to ensure a high-quality decision. Taking type 1 decisions too lightly is a potentially fatal mistake.

Type 2 decisions refer to those that “are changeable, reversible—they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through,” wrote Bezos. These decisions “can and should be made quickly by high-judgment individuals or small groups.”

People are widely empowered to make and own the decision for the area they look after. “It beats bureaucracy, analysis paralysis and improves, over time, people’s judgment in decision-making.” 

As new as I am, I feel very safe making Type 2 decisions for my product.

Curious about Amazon’s decision-making strategy? Read “How Amazon Does It: Decision Making Inside The World’s Most Daring Digital Company” here:

https://chiefexecutive.net/how-amazon-does-it-decision-making-inside-the-worlds-most-daring-digital-company/

2)     “Great job…now go fast.”

Last week we had a very exciting win with a brand new machine learning product we just launched. I was curious what the leadership team would say to the team…maybe something like “Great job!”, “Let’s get more wins!”, “Congratulations!”. It turned out, I was half right. The words we got were, “Great job. Now go fast.”

Everything moves fast here. People even talk fast at meetings. The average email response time is within the same day. Emails are not fast enough? There’s instant messaging on Slack. While I found the speed a bit dizzying at times, I’m adapting to it. My goal next month is to get two full sentences in at a meeting. ;-)

3)     “Does Andy (Jassy) need to see this?”

I was told Amazon Writing training was one of the most important pieces of training for the new hirer and I agree. People here write a lot and writes differently. “Jeff Bezos's six-page memos are legendary in the startup world for good reason: clear writing and clear thinking go hand in hand”.

Internally, people have built tools to get your writing in shape. There’s an APP to take all the “weasel words” out of your doc! How serious is this writing culture? Last week, I discovered an internal beta webpage called “Doc Bar Raiser Reviewer”. Apparently, there’s an army of internal volunteers who stand ready to review your doc if you submit your piece there. One guidance I got was when I wrote something, I should ask myself, “Does Andy need to see this?”

Want to know more about the writing strategy? Check it out here:

“Jeff Bezos’ Writing Management Strategy”

https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/

4)     “We got funding!!”

The annual cost-reduction program was a normal way of life for a lot of corporate leaders. Imagine my delight when I was given no such goal after joining AWS! Further imagine my joy, when we were given FUNDING for the new ideas our team outlined. We didn’t have to go through lengthy justifications. There’s a good memo written and after two weeks, we got funding to execute - fast approval for Type 2 decision in action!

5)     “Nice vest!”

I wear a vest now to work (and I NEVER wore vest)! If you notice, even on the main stage of major tech conferences, the leaders and speakers wore jeans. High tech culture very much goes hand in hand with casual clothing culture. Since the pandemic hit, a big part of the world has been working from home and it feels like the whole population has been in sweat pants or yoga pants for a year. From Corporate to High Tech, from office to home, from suits to vests, I sometimes look at all the “battle suits” in my closet and wonder, will I ever need them again?

Happy International Women's Day - March 8, 2021

A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change. So let's all choose to challenge.

Amazon’s International Women’s Day 2021 theme is ‘Challenge. Champion. Change.’ To champion women who dare to innovate, lead, and uplift others towards a more equal and inclusive workplace. From challenge comes change. Amazon celebrates women of all backgrounds who persevere through every day and extraordinary challenges. In the midst of crisis, women continue to elevate their voices to challenge injustice, champion gender equity, and drive positive change towards an equal and inclusive workplace. 

#ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021 #IWDxAMZ #ChallengeChampionChange

*While I work at Amazon AWS, the opinion I post is entirely my own.