Amazon is one of the successful companies who redefined the world of retail, grew across the globe and has set high standards for operational excellence. The book "Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon", Colin Bryar and Bill Carr uncover the practices defined in Amazon which led to their exponential growth.
#1 Prioritize customer needs and preferences to build products and services that resonate with target audience
Customer obsession lies at the heart of Amazon’s success. The practice was to first think about the customer and then work backwards. Hence, creating products and services by understanding the needs of the customer and ensuring that the end result adds value to the customer's life.
#2 Start with the end in mind: Define success criteria before diving into solutions to maintain a clear and customer-focused vision
The approach led the teams to craft press releases and FAQ documents before starting the solution. The approach also emphasizes on writing narratives to articulate ideas and strategies. This leads to aligning the vision among teams and building a shared understanding. This helps the teams envision success from the customer's perspective, thus, enabling the teams to deliver value.
#3 Encourages healthy debate as it can lead to more robust and creative solutions
The approach encourages teams to have healthy discussions on disagreements. This led to participation from diverse perspectives, better decision-making and innovation.
#4 Foster a culture of experimentation
The approach induced a willingness to experiment and embrace failure among the teams. This led the teams to perform low cost experiments to test ideas and re-iterate quickly as per the feedback received.
#5 Establish a set of core values and principles that guide decision-making throughout the organization
The 14 leadership principles of Amazon serve as a foundation for decision-making within the company. The provide a framework for teams at all levels and for each type of activity - be it recruitment or product launch.
#6 Two Pizza Rule - Embrace high standards and high velocity
Amazon has a unique organization structure where they emphasize that a team should be small enough that it can be fed by two pizzas. This approach fosters better communication, encourages maintaining high standards, uplifts efficiency and promotes accountability in the team. This leads to the setting of ambitious goals and measuring progress regularly. Hence, fueling the culture of continuous innovation and improvement and constantly raising the bar.
Read the book Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr for getting to examples of each of the secret sauce (Kindle | Paperback | Hardcover)
Book a slot for interactions: https://topmate.io/jayant_jain7