4 Months with Amazon Web Services

Next week marks 4 months since I joined AWS as a Sr. Product Manager (Technical) on the AWS Identity team. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.

The observations below are my personal experience and represent my opinion, not Amazon’s.

The onboarding

I was nervous on Day 1. New mechanisms, a peculiar culture, and some of the brightest minds in the industry. I wanted to know who to meet, what to read, what tools we use, and what my priorities should be.

Fortunately, all of this was structured for me. Content was curated and tailored by day, week, and month. My IT equipment and documentation were completed before my start date. In typical Amazon Prime fashion: you order it and it shows up at your door the next day.

The writing culture

My first team meeting at Amazon was an awkward silence. I was waiting for the presentation to start. There was no presentation.

At Amazon, meetings do not start with PowerPoint slides. They start with narratively structured memos. The first portion of every meeting is dedicated to reading time, followed by discussion.

Writing memos forces you to think through ideas in detail. Instead of impromptu brainstorming or stepping through a slide deck, group discussion is grounded in critical review of fully formed ideas. This got me to appreciate writing in a way I had not before.

Ownership is real

Ownership is one of the Amazon Leadership Principles, and it is not just a poster on the wall. As a Product Manager, I have end-to-end responsibility for my product area.

AWS feels like a large grouping of independent startups. Regardless of where you sit, you have a meaningful ability to influence positive change. We work backwards from customer needs and collaborate with peers and leaders for high-velocity decision making.

One concept that stood out: two-way doors. We do not deliberate much over easily reversible decisions. It is OK to be wrong, because we learn from failures and develop mechanisms to inspect and improve.

Customer obsession

90% of the features developed in AWS come directly from hearing what customers need. The other 10% comes from being close enough to customers that we can invent on their behalf when they cannot articulate those needs themselves.

As someone deeply passionate about product management, this is the culture I have always wanted to work in. The customer is the center of the universe, and product improvements are directly inspired by real customer problems.

Upside-down planning

At AWS, the people on the ground (facing customers, resolving issues, involved with the details) are the ones making the decisions.

The Amazon planning process runs bi-annually: OP-1 and OP-2. OP-1 input is a six-page document produced by every team’s Product Managers. The input is curated from customers, engineers, support, and front-line teams. We get the opportunity to Think Big about our business and define what the outlook should look like.

This is the exact opposite of traditional corporate planning, where priorities flow top-down from executives to teams.

The talent

I am surrounded by the strongest talent in the tech industry. AWS Identity serves some of the most valuable properties on the internet. In 4 months, I have had the privilege of seeking out diverse perspectives and learning about our latest innovations.

It is inspiring to be alongside peers who share the same personal values, whether that is represented in how everyone embodies the Leadership Principles or the passion they carry coming to work every day.

It is still Day 1

Day 1 is both a culture and an operating model. It puts the customer at the center of everything Amazon does. It means being constantly curious, nimble, and experimental. It means being brave enough to fail if it means we can better surprise and delight customers in the future.

Thank you to everyone who made this journey exciting from the start. I am looking forward to a bright future here with AWS.

“Work hard. Have fun. Make history.” - Jeff Bezos