Business

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

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

  • Downloads：8857
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-04-17 10:32:05
  • Update Date：2025-09-07
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Colin Bryar
  • ISBN：B088MFRK1H
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Reviews

Bob ，

I really love your story， it deserves a lot of audience。 If you have some great stories like this one， you can publish it on Novel Star， just submit your story to hardy@novelstar。top or joye@novelstar。top

Da ，

For anyone who’s curious about how Amazon works。 A must read book for all the MBA courses

Richard Reyes ，

Great job author， I really like your writing style。 I suggest you join NovelStar’s writing competition this April。 If you are interested kindly check this link https://www。facebook。com/104455574751。。。 for the mechanics of the writing contest this April and also， I am sharing your book in Facebook to help reach readers。 Thank you Great job author， I really like your writing style。 I suggest you join NovelStar’s writing competition this April。 If you are interested kindly check this link https://www。facebook。com/104455574751。。。 for the mechanics of the writing contest this April and also， I am sharing your book in Facebook to help reach readers。 Thank you 。。。more

Sri Shivananda ，

There are various things about the ways of working at Amazon I have only heard as headlines。 This book was great to understand practices like bar-raisers， pr-faq， 6-pagers， long-term mindset， single-threaded leadership， failing fast， optimizing input metrics， and more all expressed through the lens of how programs like kindle， prime， fire phone， prime video， and aws were executed。 Scaling execution， excellence， and leadership take a principled and deliberate approach to ways of working。 Repeatab There are various things about the ways of working at Amazon I have only heard as headlines。 This book was great to understand practices like bar-raisers， pr-faq， 6-pagers， long-term mindset， single-threaded leadership， failing fast， optimizing input metrics， and more all expressed through the lens of how programs like kindle， prime， fire phone， prime video， and aws were executed。 Scaling execution， excellence， and leadership take a principled and deliberate approach to ways of working。 Repeatable rhythms and rituals can be created with mental models and cultural artifacts and this book shares how this execution culture was cultivated at Amazon over the years。 。。。more

Sidharth Das ，

I started off with the book with extremely high expectations。 I generally gobble up books on great companies。。。 and I picked it up as soon it was released。 The book mainly focuses on how being an amazonian in your own companies or startups can be beneficial。 I loved some of the chapters， where as some were very superficial。。 for a lack of better word。 I would have loved to understand a bit more intricacies around what was the thinking around the launch of Kindle， amazon prime。。 and also AWS - th I started off with the book with extremely high expectations。 I generally gobble up books on great companies。。。 and I picked it up as soon it was released。 The book mainly focuses on how being an amazonian in your own companies or startups can be beneficial。 I loved some of the chapters， where as some were very superficial。。 for a lack of better word。 I would have loved to understand a bit more intricacies around what was the thinking around the launch of Kindle， amazon prime。。 and also AWS - their biggest success！！ may be a follow up book which talks about these in more details。 。。。more

Justine ，

4。5/5。 Inspiring glimpse into how Amazon has approached and mastered continual innovation。

Kate Boudreau ，

I take issue with some of the cultural elements of Amazon that this book brushed past。 And it hurt my heart to notice the lack of diversity in all of these S-team and executive meetings。That being said， Working Backwards is a great product philosophy， and I can very much get behind being customer obsessed， writing out customer experience journeys before developing， and doing away with power point。

Ridhi Garg ，

We all must have heard， read about Amazon's working backwards principle。 But beyond the headline， nothing much has been offered in terms of detail。This book gives all the insights that how does Amazon's working backwards process work and what makes it to launch hardware products like Kindle。The biggest takeaway from this book， in my opinion is that it boils down to how can one work with some of the smartest talents， yet ensure they all work 'together'， not by limiting the togetherness to an insp We all must have heard， read about Amazon's working backwards principle。 But beyond the headline， nothing much has been offered in terms of detail。This book gives all the insights that how does Amazon's working backwards process work and what makes it to launch hardware products like Kindle。The biggest takeaway from this book， in my opinion is that it boils down to how can one work with some of the smartest talents， yet ensure they all work 'together'， not by limiting the togetherness to an inspiring leader。So， go ahead and read this book。 This is a blueprint for leaders and is totally worth your time， if your life revolves around building products。 。。。more

Rick Kubina ，

I’ve read a number of books on business and this one is very well done。 The authors share what worked and provide strategies that can be implemented by other businesses。 They also provide good rationales for why what they have implemented worked。 There is some Jeff Bezos lionization but it is understandable; that guy did pretty well for himself and Amazon。

Sekar Velu ，

The whole pictureYou hear bits and pieces of Amazon culture that have contributed to its’ overall success but this is the first comprehensive deep dive on the details。 Great read and I’m going to go probably read it a few times。

Orest ，

modern mein kampf

Burak ，

Great first half。 Not so much at the second section。 Beautiful tips in the first half that you can implement in your own business。 Second half is more interesting anecdotes。 Still a good read。

Mike Hales ，

Impossible to state how useful this book is Invaluable and practicable examples for anyone from a product manager to a CEO。 Never written so many notes or had so many ah ha moments from a business book。 Logical， precise and well written。 Highly recommended。

Ana Carla ，

Este livro é um manual de práticas da Amazon que， segundo os autores， são fundamentais para o sucesso e o alto nível de inovação da empresa。 Das minhas favoritas， destaco: trocar slides por narrativas escritas em reuniões， pensar o produto de trás para frente （escrevendo PR/FAQ ainda na fase de ideação） e o processo de "bar raiser"， que busca garantir que a barra de recrutamento nunca caia， mesmo quando se tem urgência para fechar a posição。Meu único adendo é que quase todo exemplo de processo d Este livro é um manual de práticas da Amazon que， segundo os autores， são fundamentais para o sucesso e o alto nível de inovação da empresa。 Das minhas favoritas， destaco: trocar slides por narrativas escritas em reuniões， pensar o produto de trás para frente （escrevendo PR/FAQ ainda na fase de ideação） e o processo de "bar raiser"， que busca garantir que a barra de recrutamento nunca caia， mesmo quando se tem urgência para fechar a posição。Meu único adendo é que quase todo exemplo de processo decisório bem sucedido descrito no livro passa em algum momento por um Jeff Bezos insatisfeito numa sala de reunião。 Ainda que a mensagem original fosse de que não é necessário ter um Bezos para alcançar o mesmo sucesso com o jeito "Amazonian" de se trabalhar， minha impressão é que os exemplos na verdade apontam para o contrário， o que reduz a aplicabilidade da fórmula de sucesso descrita no livro。 。。。more

Manish Jain ，

meh

Luke ，

Great book。 Lays out many of the core methods used at Amazon with underlying principles and detailed descriptions of them being applied。 Written in a highly engaging way。The origin story of the Kindle was fascinating: understanding that the value of aggregation for digital products such as eBooks is much weaker than physical products and hence Amazon needed to innovate at the ends of the value chain。 This led to the creation of Amazon Publishing and the Kindle。 We can see this again playout late Great book。 Lays out many of the core methods used at Amazon with underlying principles and detailed descriptions of them being applied。 Written in a highly engaging way。The origin story of the Kindle was fascinating: understanding that the value of aggregation for digital products such as eBooks is much weaker than physical products and hence Amazon needed to innovate at the ends of the value chain。 This led to the creation of Amazon Publishing and the Kindle。 We can see this again playout later on with Amazon Prime and the Amazon Firestick。Many useful concepts for early-stage startups: customer centricity， the working backwards press releases; hiring processes; and how Jeff encouraged attention to detail through initial monitoring。 Also many useful concepts for bigger orgs: single-threader leadership; and narrative documents。The working backwards process represents an alternative to the standard lean startup methodology。 https://commoncog。com/blog/product-de。。。 does a great job of making direct comparisons:"If there’s anything we’ve learnt from the decade after Lean Startup， it is that sometimes， even building an MVP can be too expensive。 （And sometimes having a core group of differentiated evaluators can be just as good， if not better， than getting feedback from users）" — it might well be more efficient to iterate on a press release than a live product。 。。。more

Ty ，

Amazon is a fascinating thing， so I was interested in this book written by two former long time senior managers from the company which claims to describe what it means to be Amazonian and how to apply the Amazon principles in our own lives and companies。 What did I learn？ I learned that much of the structure that Amazon put in place appears to have been created so that a megalomaniacal genius like Bezos could micro manage as much of the company as possible for as long as possible。 I really don't Amazon is a fascinating thing， so I was interested in this book written by two former long time senior managers from the company which claims to describe what it means to be Amazonian and how to apply the Amazon principles in our own lives and companies。 What did I learn？ I learned that much of the structure that Amazon put in place appears to have been created so that a megalomaniacal genius like Bezos could micro manage as much of the company as possible for as long as possible。 I really don't see how any normal organization could make much use of most of the practices that these guys are so proud of， and they just don't seem to notice that there might be an issue when they suggest things like: just hire more people and managers so that every important task has a dedicated team and leader。 Well。。。gee。。。 if I am not working at a superfast growing cash generation machine， how do I fund that？ The description of how Amazon does hiring is useful， and is the chapter on how the created the corporate principles and values， but the rest is interesting only in a tourist kind of way， like going to see Windsor Castle and wondering how it would be to live there。 Not highly recommended unless you are interested in working at Amazon and need to learn why that is a bad idea。 。。。more

Eugene L ，

Amazon history， processes。 Repetitive re: company ethos， cheerleading。 Jeff Bezos worship piece。

Lorraine ，

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a Goodreads review。 They cited my review of Radical Candor as an indication that I might like this book。 I find that connection odd， now that I've read this Amazon book， because the themes are very different。 Radical Candor is about working with the people on your team and how to do that in a way that promotes engagement and personal improvement。 Working Backwards is about improving business productivity through products， not people， and is I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a Goodreads review。 They cited my review of Radical Candor as an indication that I might like this book。 I find that connection odd， now that I've read this Amazon book， because the themes are very different。 Radical Candor is about working with the people on your team and how to do that in a way that promotes engagement and personal improvement。 Working Backwards is about improving business productivity through products， not people， and is about profits not teams。 So I don't think the books are comparable except to say they both feature well-know major companies and would be found in the business section of a bookstore。 The same person may want to read both， but it would be for different reasons and goals。My review will focus on Working Backwards on its own then， and not in comparison to Radical Candor。I see this book as first a historical text explaining why and how Amazon became the mega star that it is。 From a business development perspective， it's interesting。 The authors claim that the principles they lay out that led Amazon to grow so well and quickly can be applied to any business。 Yes， but they cannot be applied to every business。 The distinction is this: it took a very specific style of running a company to make Amazon a giant， and that style will not work in every setting for everyone。 The leadership principles they lay out are solid， and many of the concepts can be adapted to other companies。 The PR/FAQ concept of writing the press release and getting it right before developing the product is a great idea。 So is the 6-page narrative in lieu of a powerpoint to require detailed thinking about a project that everyone can digest and critique。 I like the principles behind the Bar Raiser hiring concept。However， the frugality， the workaholism， the intensity of "get 'er done yesterday" pace of work， the very long term investment rewards to employees will not work for everyone。 Nor should they -- they meet the needs of some， but not everyone wants that kind of worklife。What is absent from the book is the human side of Amazon。 There is no discussion about how people felt about being pulled off their well-deserved and needed vacation on day one to return to the office to begin another high intensity project。 There was no talk about how the two pizza teams develop their norms and communicate about their projects when there is dissenting opinions。 The Senior VPs etc are rewarded with stock options for strong performance， but what about the people working in the Fulfillment Centres？ Those places are only mentioned occasionally and in passing， but what are the working conditions there， other than "go faster"？ The authors mention that even the top brass take turns working in all areas of the company， but other than to fine-tune process， what do they learn about empathy for the people in those jobs？ They're not long-term jobs， picking and packing in a warehouse。 They're the jobs of young healthy people。 Given that some of those centres are considering forming unions because they're unhappy with working conditions highlights how little is said about that aspect of Amazon in this book。 So it's a book about and for the top brass of a company about how to squeeze more juice from a lemon/fruit to make an even better drink。 It's interesting to learn about the evolution of what are now very well known Amazon services， and there are business take-aways。 It's not going to see the same popularity as Radical Candor， however。 。。。more

Kalyan Bandari ，

Well written and a personal account but peels only a few layers。

Brandon ，

I had no idea that Amazon's culture was so unique and such an integral part of the company before reading this book。 The authors were two early high-level Amazon execs， and they do a great job of explaining the culture and mechanisms that make Amazon unique （first half of the book） and giving examples of Amazon's uniqueness in action （second half of the book）。Chapter 1: Delight the CustomerTakeaways:1。tCustomer obsession is KEY。 It’s more important than anything else。 （Long-term shareholder valu I had no idea that Amazon's culture was so unique and such an integral part of the company before reading this book。 The authors were two early high-level Amazon execs， and they do a great job of explaining the culture and mechanisms that make Amazon unique （first half of the book） and giving examples of Amazon's uniqueness in action （second half of the book）。Chapter 1: Delight the CustomerTakeaways:1。tCustomer obsession is KEY。 It’s more important than anything else。 （Long-term shareholder value is fortunately aligned with pleasing customers）。2。tEnsure that financial incentives are aligned with desired results。 In particular， you must make sure to not disincentivize collaboration and long-term thinking。3。tOperational excellence is a MUST。 There’s no magic formula for this beyond planning well， working hard， and taking responsibility/ownership。4。tLeadership principles must be enforced via mechanisms and baked into every process/aspect of the company。Chapter 2: HiringThis chapter is a great "how-to" for creating a decent hiring process。Takeaways:1。tWhat makes a good process: it’s simple to understand， can be easily taught to new people， does not depend on scarce resources （such as a single individual）， and has a feedback loop to ensure continual improvement。a。tThe most interesting aspect to me is the feedback loop for improvement – the Core Bar Raisers train Bar Raisers， who in turn use the debriefing meetings as coaching sessions to engrain the process into interviewers。2。tThe 14 Leadership Principles seem like a great way to assess candidates / maintain a corporate culture （as far as that is possible）。3。tHiring is really critical， and really hard， so it makes sense to devote significant resources to it and train a corps of “Bar Raisers” who are voluntary experts in the process。4。tHiring is complicated， so you need to make sure that you develop a good process， maintain metrics on it， and learn the process really well。Chapter 3: OrganizationTakeaways:1。tOrganizing different capabilities into independent units is a must。2。tBuilding a company is about more than building a product – it’s about building an organization。 The organization itself is a type of ‘product’ that must be experimented with， iterated on， documented， and improved。Chapter 4: CommunicationTakeaways:1。tYou need to make the most of your meetings。 They need structure， they need to facilitate efficient information transfer between the presenters and the audience， they need to engage the audience。2。tNarratives help to accomplish these things。a。tWritten narratives are much more information dense than slides。b。tThe silent reading at the beginning of the meetings prevents interruptions。c。tThey allow the efficient communication of complex ideas。d。tThey don’t depend on presenters’ speaking skills， and their form allows them to be easily distributed and edited。3。tThis meeting structure seems good:a。t1。 Silent reading of the narrative （1/3 of meeting）b。t2。 Get feedback from everyone in the roomc。t3。 Allow questions/discussiond。tMust record all feedback and questions4。tWhat do you want to accomplish in a meeting？a。tForce the presenters to think deeply about what they are presenting。 Writing a narrative accomplishes this。b。tEnable the audience to understand the idea and to provide useful feedback。5。tNarratives are iterative processes。 They are also difficult。 Writers must practice writing them， and audience members must practice giving feedback， over many cycles。Chapter 5: Working BackwardsTakeaways:1。tThe PR/FAQ format itself sounds kind of gimmicky， but it’s as good as anything at achieving a great goal – forcing the team to focus on the customer while also enforcing due diligence on the business/product/tech development side。2。tThe PR/FAQ format also has the same benefits of the narratives discussed in the previous chapter – it’s a standardized format that’s accessible to anyone in the organization; it’s a complete record of the idea that can be easily passed along， reviewed， and edited; and its written format enables a richer narrative and higher information density than a presentation。3。tThere are three parts of the PR/FAQ: the PR （1 page， forces a perspective shift to the customer）。 The external FAQ （continues to force a customer perspective）。 The internal FAQ （due diligence on the business/product/tech side）。Chapter 6: MetricsTakeaways:1。tRunning a company is eerily similar to setting up an optimization problem。 You need to get the reward function just right， otherwise your optimization problem is going to give you unwanted results。 It’s a little more complicated than this though。 Although the output metrics are the final ‘reward signal’， since you don’t have direct control over these metrics， you have to define ‘controllable input metrics’ which are basically proxy reward signals for your employees。 It is a difficult iterative process to make sure that the controllable input metrics are properly aligned with your overall goals。2。tThey suggest using the Six Sigma DMAIC （Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control） process for making metrics。3。tThe Weekly Business Review meetings are important for evaluating the metrics and using the metrics to detect anomalies/bad trends in the operation of the business。 The authors give a lot of guidance on how to structure these meetings to be productive。4。tLooking at anecdotes and exceptions is a crucial complement to looking at the metrics。 The anecdotes and exceptions are a reality check that help to expose flaws or oversights in the metrics。The second half of the book is about how the Kindle， Prime， Prime Video， and AWS were developed。 It was pretty cool to hear about these success stories， since they're a big part of what differentiates Amazon from other tech companies （the ability to consistently make successful new products）。Kindle:The decision to leap into hardware creation for the Kindle was huge for Amazon， but it was carefully planned - they realized that they couldn't differentiate themselves from other e-book sellers based on their selection or price， as they had with physical books， so they had to differentiate via either their content creation process or the reading experience， and they chose the reading experience。 Next， they didn't compromise on devising and following through on features that would make the Kindle a truly great reading experience - the E-Ink display， the free cellular internet collection that allowed you to download books from anywhere， etc。Prime:The development of Prime was earlier and more haphazard than their other examples， but it's a good example of the Amazon process。 They brainstormed a ton of different ideas， most of which were failures or only partial successes， before they finally found the winning formula with Prime。 Furthermore， they weren't afraid to pivot even after devoting significant resources to a given strategy。 The introduction of Prime guaranteed that Amazon's previous fulfillment strategy （building large fulfillment centers close to distribution centers） would become obsolete （they would need to build many smaller fulfillment centers closer to customers in order to have free two-day shipping）， but they went ahead with it full steam anyway。 Furthermore， they did it during the busy holiday season when they could easily have claimed they were too busy with other things to create this huge new feature。Prime Video:This was the most interesting story for me because it was so full of failure。 Amazon's first attempt at video was Amazon Unbox， which was a disaster。 Then they made Amazon Video on Demand， which also was not a success。 Then they made Amazon Instant Video， which also didn't really go anywhere。 Finally， they folded their video service into Prime， which made it a bigger success。 Furthermore， they finally decided to go from being just a video aggregator to being a content creator and a device maker。 On the device side， this line of thinking led them to develop the Fire Tablet and the Echo。 On the content side， they have made a number of hit shows for Prime Video。 This example really shows how persistence pays off， yet I think the authors don't highlight the causes of their failures enough。 The authors mention that their team was almost entirely MBAs and engineers and no Hollywood people， and some of the key insights came from the rare team members with Hollywood experience - it seems pretty boneheaded to me to not hire more people with relevant industry experience。 Also， it took them forever to stop being a video aggregator and instead go after content creation and device making。 And finally， it took them forever to realize that the streaming business model was a game changer。 They could have saved probably $100m's if they had had some more humility and had spent more time on self-reflection。AWS:This chapter was disappointingly short。 But AWS clearly shows just how far-sighted Amazon's leadership was。 AWS was initially just a service for querying product info for Amazon's referral program， and it eventually become like an API for Amazon's web store。 I think it took true insight to realize that instead of just providing an API to Amazon's web store， they could provide an API to Amazon's actual servers and computing power and that this would become an enormous market。 While reading this book， I was getting a lot of Julius Caesar vibes from Jeff Bezos and Amazon。 When I was reading Caesar's Gallic Wars and Civil Wars （basically yearly reports of his military activities）， I was amazed by how Caesar was able to successfully operate in literally every theater of the Mediterranean in every type of battle in every battle condition against every type of foe。 Amazon strikes me as a company with a similar capability - an ability to successfully operate in almost any business。 Not only do they have that ability， but they are not afraid to act on it and make big bets。 The themes that I picked up on throughout the book were that Amazon succeeds because for them， the company/organization is one of their products， so they are constantly scrutinizing their processes， developing mechanisms to make their success repeatable and to prevent failures， and making long-term investments in both their businesses and their （high-level） employees。 Furthermore， if you're really serious about something being part of your company culture， you need to bake it into everyday life at the company。 For example， incorporating the 14 Leadership Principles into the hiring process forces the interviewees to use them in evaluating candidates。 PowerPoint slides are literally banned for most important meetings。 Salary compensation is capped at $160k so that most compensation is in the form of stock。 Etc etc。 Leadership Principles are corny talking points until you bake them into every aspect and mechanism of the company， and then they suddenly become a way of life。The one thing that surprises me is that Goodreads can have such a god-awful UI despite the fact that it's owned by Amazon。 。。。more

Rishabh Srivastava ，

This was a summary of Amazon's operational principles， written by two senior insiders。 The first half of the book lays out these principles， while the second half talks about how they were applied within the organizationI found the first half super useful and well-written， but the second half was lacking。 My main takeaways were:1。 Define operating principles for key leaders in your organization and make sure they stick to it2。 Ensure that you have a structured processing for hiring。 In an interv This was a summary of Amazon's operational principles， written by two senior insiders。 The first half of the book lays out these principles， while the second half talks about how they were applied within the organizationI found the first half super useful and well-written， but the second half was lacking。 My main takeaways were:1。 Define operating principles for key leaders in your organization and make sure they stick to it2。 Ensure that you have a structured processing for hiring。 In an interview， if you ask inane questions like: “Tell me something about yourself that isn’t apparent by reading your résumé。” You might as well just say， “Look， I don’t know what I’m looking for or how to find it， so can you please help me out？”3。 Ensure that your leaders and key teams are responsible for doing one thing and one thing only。 The best way to fail at inventing something is by making it somebody’s part-time job。 Have separable teams with single-threaded leaders。 Separable means almost as separable organizationally as APIs are for software。 Single-threaded means they don’t work on anything else4。 Using narratives and the written word to develop and communicate ideas can help you identify flaws in ideas before you execute them。 Don't rely on oral， power-point based presentations。 Removing the natural variance in speaking skills and graphic design expertise can help you get to the innate quality of an idea （unaffected by the charisma or lack thereof of the presenter） quicker5。 Start with the desired customer experience when coming up with new product ideas。 Start by defining the customer experience， then iteratively work backwards from that point until the team achieves clarity of thought around what to build。 Create the press release and Frequently Asked Questions （FAQs） for a product before you put any engineering effort into it6。 Don't try to optimise for output variables （like sales， or valuation）。 You can't control them。 Instead， create a strong model of how variables you can control （input variables） map to the output variables。 Then， optimise the input variables that you can actually control7。 Use data and dashboards effectively to keep track of matrics。 With so many metrics to review， written narrative or explanatory notes would undercut the efficiency of the read-through。 Instead， stick to charts， graphs， and data tables。8。 Outsourcing can often have devastating long-term implications。 Much of the knowledge and know-how accrues in the minds and methods of the outsourcer。 Never outsource critical IP or knowhow。 Specially when you need to continually iterate on the product 。。。more

Aviva Rosman ，

It's a strange time to be reading a book about Amazon， as several thousand warehouse workers in Alabama consider unionization and the corporate Twitter account fires off weirdly hostile attacks at popular American senators。 But if you're comfortable putting ethical debates to the side （which you may not be）， Amazon is a fascinating company。 Over the past two decades， its built an astonishing number of successful businesses。 AWS alone is worth half a trillion（！） and that's for a service that has It's a strange time to be reading a book about Amazon， as several thousand warehouse workers in Alabama consider unionization and the corporate Twitter account fires off weirdly hostile attacks at popular American senators。 But if you're comfortable putting ethical debates to the side （which you may not be）， Amazon is a fascinating company。 Over the past two decades， its built an astonishing number of successful businesses。 AWS alone is worth half a trillion（！） and that's for a service that has nothing to do with Amazon's original core value proposition or customer。 If you're interested in how Amazon has been so successful， Working Backwards is straightforward and practical， and the insider stories of the development of Amazon practices and products makes for a memorable read。 I took a lot from the chapters on metrics， communication， and the titular working backwards process， and enjoyed the second half of the book which shows how Amazon's principles were put into practice in the development of the Kindle， Amazon Prime， Amazon Video， and AWS。 Sometimes the authors can veer into unnecessary personnel detail， i。e。 "This project was developed by Jim James and Stan Smith， both great guys who eventually left for Blue Corp" that sounds the way I imagine a corporate golf game。 But overall a solidly helpful book and revealing look into how Amazon works。 。。。more

Luis Cuesta ，

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway。 In their book Colin Bryar and Bill Carr portrayed Amazon as the result of an incredibly well-designed and engineered approach to building value by enabling and empowering teams， focusing on serving customers with a long-term view， and being relentless in that pursuit。 Theirs is an insider view because they worked on the company for many years and this is an aspect to take in account in order to value the significance of the book。 I think their target I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway。 In their book Colin Bryar and Bill Carr portrayed Amazon as the result of an incredibly well-designed and engineered approach to building value by enabling and empowering teams， focusing on serving customers with a long-term view， and being relentless in that pursuit。 Theirs is an insider view because they worked on the company for many years and this is an aspect to take in account in order to value the significance of the book。 I think their target audience is probably made of those that like business books that offer a blueprint for businessmen and entrepreneurs to implement guiding principles， operating rhythms and durable mechanisms in their companies。 For the rest of us ， you keep reading because you want to have a better idea of what is to be an "Amazonian" （ a completely new term for me， and a very clever one） and this book opens that door for you。 。。。more

MacKenzie Green ，

This was a typical “deep dive” book on a standout company。 You don’t get too deep on the proprietary elements that make Amazon successful。 The Being Amazonian section is probably the most valuable。 I’m particularly fascinated by the Six-Pager chapter （and communicating chapter in general）， because I think moving away from PowerPoint reliance is valuable。 The leadership principles weren’t helpful because they didn’t give any insight into how to create your own for your organization。The book felt This was a typical “deep dive” book on a standout company。 You don’t get too deep on the proprietary elements that make Amazon successful。 The Being Amazonian section is probably the most valuable。 I’m particularly fascinated by the Six-Pager chapter （and communicating chapter in general）， because I think moving away from PowerPoint reliance is valuable。 The leadership principles weren’t helpful because they didn’t give any insight into how to create your own for your organization。The book felt particularly insightful if you are in product management。 Part Two was really a deep dive on different Amazon innovations and showing the Amazonian elements of Part One in action。 My biggest complaint with most books like this are they never give solid advice on how to manage up。 If you aren’t an entrepreneur or top management， it’s hard to introduce radical/innovative change。 。。。more

Nicole Barbaro ，

Great book with practical strategies for success at all scales

Raphael Leiteritz ，

Good but a bit too anecdotal

Mikal ，

Working Backwards is an excellence synopsis of the habits and practices inside of Amazon。I've never worked at Amazon but having worked alongside， coached， and mentored a few Amazonians the descriptions within resonate as the history behind a few of the habits and practices。 What is particularly helpful is the explanation of the toolkits of Narratives and PRFAQs。 These have become common product manager tools--but at each new company or time joining， it's tough to explain a clear example around t Working Backwards is an excellence synopsis of the habits and practices inside of Amazon。I've never worked at Amazon but having worked alongside， coached， and mentored a few Amazonians the descriptions within resonate as the history behind a few of the habits and practices。 What is particularly helpful is the explanation of the toolkits of Narratives and PRFAQs。 These have become common product manager tools--but at each new company or time joining， it's tough to explain a clear example around the goals and how to use each， unless it's been previously instilled at a company。I've simply referred people to chapters from this book for examples presently。 What's also helpful is the why--many people view Amazon culture from the sound bites and excerpts passed around and take away--be insanely data driven and/or view this process as a means to never fail。What's clear if you've studied Amazon's history is that their failure rate on MAJOR initiatives is actually quite high。 However， as a learning organization they iterate through the marketplace to find success。 So while the toolkit seems to most inspire the risk intolerant--the toolkit is actually a toolkit for embarking on high risk projects。Since Amazon's success and communication of it's methodologies is here to stay--I believe this book will have enduring value alongside other books from Amazonian's such as No Service is the Best Service。 I do find that the structure and ease of reference and incorporation is sharper than The Google Way。One final point--while the authors have made clear their advocacy of the Bar Raiser program， their appendix recommendations for interviews is actually highly problematic。Excerpt:Q: What is your most significant professional accomplishment？ A: Biz dev deal that we did with Blue Corp。 while I was at Red Corp。 While I was too junior to lead the strategy elements for the deal， the strategic output of the deal was really big for us—brought several other players like Yellow。com to our doorstep to do similar deals。 Q: So what was your role？ A: I was one of three members of the deal team; me， the VP of Product Development， and a guy from legal。 My role was relationship manager， so when business owners had specific needs， they would bring them to me and I would execute them with Blue Corp。 。。。While I probed multiple times here， he didn’t give me any evidence of something substantial that he had personally done on this deal。 He was proud of the strategic import of the deal， but admitted at the outset that he had nothing to do with setting deal strategy。 I was then looking for him to give me specific evidence of tough hurdles or negotiation tactics that he had employed in cranking out this huge agreement （or at least evidence of really hard work）， but he didn’t volunteer anything。 I was psyched when he first started to tell me about this， thinking that he has great experience in putting together big deals， but it sounded like the VP and legal team members did all the driving。Bryar， Colin; Carr， Bill。 Working Backwards （pp。 265-266）。 St。 Martin's Publishing Group。 Kindle Edition。 Here in there example of good feedback--they didn't highlight just how much guessing they do。 For a machine like Amazon with a recruiting pipeline dedicated to getting people in the door you can tolerate a healthy amount of false negatives （good candidates who interview poorly） at most companies you can't。Here if you have a question that's important and you're not getting the answer to--tell the candidate or ask！For example: "Thinking about your role in the deal--why was this a great professional accomplishment for you？"--you may surface a hidden reason--OR "what is your greatest professional accomplish where you played a leading role"？ 。。。more

Andrew Corley ，

This isn't a pop-business book like you'd get from Malcom Gladwell。 If you're looking for fun and fluffy stories with pseudo science， look elsewhere。 This book is dense and succinct on Amazon process and the reasoning behind it。 It's got it's share of war stories and anecdotes but they're somewhat austere in the telling。 They do， alas， use the Amazon principle of Data Combined with Anecdote to Tell the Whole Story。 The book is great at what it does。Going in， I was familiar with the Amazon 6 page This isn't a pop-business book like you'd get from Malcom Gladwell。 If you're looking for fun and fluffy stories with pseudo science， look elsewhere。 This book is dense and succinct on Amazon process and the reasoning behind it。 It's got it's share of war stories and anecdotes but they're somewhat austere in the telling。 They do， alas， use the Amazon principle of Data Combined with Anecdote to Tell the Whole Story。 The book is great at what it does。Going in， I was familiar with the Amazon 6 pager from reading their Letters to Shareholders https://ir。aboutamazon。com/annual-rep。。。 （which are fantastic， btw）。 I had not heard about the PR/faq method before， but I like it。 Its somewhat similar to what we once called 404 testing: that's where you build the landing page for a product， buy some traffic and test to see if people would buy before you have the product。 （When they complete the order， you would just send them to a 404 page and no transaction would happen）。Amazon is eating the world。 This book sheds more insight into how and why。 It will be interesting to see how much culture drift occurs now that Jeff is no longer CEO。 。。。more

Łukasz Obuchowicz ，

Fantastic stories on being innovative at all levels！