Shifting Mindsets: The Challenge of Changing Perspectives

Amazon's approach to changing mindsets is central to their success innovating on behalf of customers. While hiring the right people is important, the key lies in having mechanisms that encourage people to think and act differently. Amazon defines mechanisms as complete processes that drive the behaviour of individuals involved, ensuring success rather than leaving it to chance.

A successful mechanism should consistently deliver expected results as it scales across the business. This principle was fundamental to Jeff Bezos and his leadership team's vision for Amazon's operation as it grew. While all processes have inputs and outputs, mechanisms also include tools, inspection, and adoption. This allows senior management to effectively decentralise the running of mechanisms across the business without needing direct oversight.

During my time at Amazon, I was often asked about the 'secret sauce' behind maintaining high levels of innovation at such a large scale. Many of my customers described their organisations as slow and lacking the necessary customer-centric focus to remain competitive in their markets.

There is a lot to cover in one article, so we'll explore mechanisms like working backwards, how it fosters different ways of thinking and behaving, how it ties to innovation, and use a real example to illustrate how technology can meet customer goals and the lessons learned about when it's time for change. So, let's get to it…

Conventional thinking tends to focus on incremental improvements rather than starting from scratch. Existing solutions often dominate and limit our perspective, preventing us from truly innovating based on the customer's needs and desires. If working backwards from the customer is the key, then merely refining an existing solution is likely not the way forward. In other words, you can't innovate from a candle to a lightbulb by making the candle better.

Let’s take an example to get you thinking. What problems do you see in the image below? Have a think about how you would improve or innovate those problems before you read on.

You’ve likely felt the frustration of waiting in a long queue due to a shortage of checkout staff. On the other hand, retailers sometimes grapple with having too many staff on hand. Despite the improvements in technology over time, such as electronic point of sale, the experience often remains tiresome for most of us.

Now let's examine how conventional 'forward' thinking has led to solutions and how retailers have solved this problem.

These self-checkout machines increase capacity, but they effectively turn us, the customer, into unpaid checkout staff. While they can be helpful when functioning properly, they often fail, requiring assistance from actual staff members. 'Unidentified item in bagging area' sound familiar? This example illustrates how conventional thinking tries to improve the checkout process without thinking about what the customer really wants. The primary beneficiary here is not the customer, but the retailer, who seeks to increase checkout capacity and potentially reduce staffing.

So, how did Amazon address this challenge?

By prioritising customer experience, Amazon utilised the working backwards mechanism to envision a frictionless checkout process. This approach provided a clear perspective on customer success, empowering their teams to innovate solutions accordingly. As a result, Amazon developed the 'Just Walk Out' technology, an advanced system that uses facial recognition to identify customers and product recognition to track items placed in their shopping baskets. It's sophisticated enough to detect if children sneak a chocolate bar into the basket unnoticed and can even tell if an item is put back on the shelf.

The "working backwards" mechanism involves five key questions that are simple to ask but difficult to answer:

1. Who is the customer?
2. What is the customer's problem or opportunity?
3. What is the most critical customer benefit?
4. How do you know what customers want or need?
5. What will the customer experience look and feel like?

These questions drive deep thinking and ensure a customer-focused approach with clarity on the value and priorities for the customer.

The "Just Walk Out" technology exemplifies an innovative solution. Its brilliance is undeniable, but it may surprise you to learn that this technology is 10 years old. When I use this example, I often ask who has experienced this technology, and surprisingly, very few have which suggests a lack of adoption. Recently, this example caught some media attention as Amazon started to change the technology in some of its stores.

So, what happened?

Amazon had a first-mover advantage in understanding customer needs and envisioning a frictionless checkout experience, bringing their solution to market years ahead of competitors. Many of these competitors are now adopting similar solutions. Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon, famously stated that "there is no compression algorithm for experience." Through this, Amazon learned that customer preferences are nuanced. For instance, at airports or sporting events, customers prefer a simple 'just walk out' experience with a basket for a few items. Conversely, for large weekly shopping trips, they prefer using a trolley and having a running total of their expenditure.

The media often sensationalise negative stories, and some suggested that the technology was defunct. However, the reality is quite different. The dash cart, a high-tech trolley, features a screen displaying your purchases and uses the same 'just walk out' recognition technology to track items added or removed from the cart. You still enjoy the convenience of walking out without waiting in line, but with a trolley instead of a basket. This innovation highlights the importance of continuously improving technology based on customer feedback and understanding the small nuances that significantly impact customer satisfaction.

While this example is old, it remains crucial to shift perspectives and work backwards from the customer, creating a vision and then innovating the right technology to meet those needs. With advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence, significant global investment from businesses is anticipated. There is immense potential to improve, but there's also considerable risk if these investments are based on flawed perspectives, ultimately failing to meet customer needs and resulting in wasted investment.

Why do I write articles like this? After leaving Amazon, I chose to shift gears and focus on coaching. My goal isn't to be a career coach but to tackle meaningful business problems and leverage my experience to help coach teams to succeed. By writing these articles, I share my knowledge upfront, allowing me to concentrate on applying my expertise when I engage with a project. This approach benefits my clients and provides a more fulfilling experience for me.

If you're interested in exploring how we can work together to solve your business challenges and enhance your team's success by 'thinking differently', please reach out on LinkedIn to have a chat.