Working Backwards

The basic premise is, for each initiative or project, there is a single leader whose focus is that project and that project alone, and that leader oversees teams of people whose attention is similarly focused on that one project.

, the interviewer wants the candidate to provide detailed examples of what they personally contributed to solving hard problems or how they performed in work situations like the ones they will experience at Amazon. Second, the interviewer wants to learn how the candidate accomplished their goals and whether their methods align with the Amazon Leadership Principles. General, open-ended questions such as “Tell me about your career” or “Walk me through your résumé” are usually a waste of time and will not produce the kind of specific information you’re after. When asked such questions, most candidates will take the opportunity to deliver a positive, perhaps slightly glorified narrative of their career.

didate to provide detailed examples of what they personally contributed to solving hard problems or how they performed in work situations like the ones they will experience at Amazon. Second, the interviewer wants to learn how the candidate accomplished their goals and whether their methods align with the Amazon Leadership Principles. General, open-ended questions such as “Tell me about your career” or “Walk me through your résumé” are usually a waste of time and will not produce the kind of specific information you’re after. When asked such questions, most candidates will take the opportunity to deliver a positive, perhaps slightly glorified narrative of their career.

many companies, when the senior leadership meets, they tend to focus more on big-picture, high-level strategy issues than on execution. At Amazon, it’s the opposite. Amazon leaders toil over the execution details and regularly embody the Dive Deep leadership principle, which states: “Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. No task is beneath them.”

S-Team begins by creating a set of high-level expectations
or objectives for the entire company. For example, in previous years, the CEO and CFO would articulate goals like “Grow revenue from $10 billion to $15 billion” or “Reduce fixed costs by 5 percent.” Over time, Amazon refined such broad goals into a longer list of increasingly detailed objectives. Examples have included: revenue growth targets by geography and business segment; operating leverage targets; improving productivity and giving back those savings to customers in the form of lower prices; generating strong free cash flow; and understanding the level of investment in new businesses, products, and services.

There’s a saying often heard at Amazon: “Good intentions don’t work. Mechanisms do.” No company can rely on good intentions like “We must try harder!” or “Next time remember to…” to improve a process, solve a problem, or fix a mistake. That’s because people already had good intentions when the problems cropped up in the first place. Amazon realized early on that if you don’t change the underlying condition that created a problem, you should expect the problem to recur.

percentile would you place this candidate?”

The hiring manager, not the recruiter, then calls the references to further explore and confirm the candidate’s skills and past performance. One question that often gets a telling response is, “If given the chance, would you hire this person again?” Another is, “Of the people you have managed or worked with, in what

Now that everyone has had a chance to read all the feedback, would anyone like to change their vote?” The reason for this is that each interviewer submitted their vote based on only the data that they gathered in their interview.

you were assigned to work on a different project instead of Project X, what would have changed about Project X?” and “What was the toughest call on Project X, and who made it?”