The Fire Phone was one of Amazon’s most public failures. People still refer to it today, assuming it was a failure of Amazon’s systems for invention. But here’s what Jeff Bezos told shareholders in a 2014 letter after sunsetting the business:
“If you think that’s a big failure, we’re working on much bigger failures right now—and I am not kidding.”
The truth is that the Fire Phone had a solid product development process, high-quality execution, and a team led by experienced VPs. Jeff himself was closely involved.
Amazon used the Working Backwards PR/FAQ new product innovation process— the same method Amazon uses for all new products. On paper, the phone showed every sign of being a home run.
But in the end, the Fire Phone’s core specs (like 3D effects) and price didn’t solve a significant customer problem. It wasn’t a (meaningfully) better, faster, or cheaper phone. The same people and the same process that birthed AWS, and Prime produced a dud.
Jeff wrote this about the process and the disappointing results:
“We all know that if you swing for the fences, you’re going to strike out a lot, but you’re also going to hit some home runs.”
The goal of this approach is to land a small number of very big wins that can pay for the large number of experiments that fail or break even.
In Amazon’s case, those very big wins are AWS, Prime Video, and others. Those businesses fund the experiments that either yield more winners—or don’t.
The point is that a failure-tolerant process is a feature, not a bug. Jeff established a culture that embraces risk-taking and a willingness to fail. As they say in skiing, “…if you’re not falling, you’re not learning.”
This is the most important part: no process can guarantee success. Process is a tool for better decision-making to increase the odds of success. CEOs can learn from Amazon by combining a rigorous process and a willingness to fail.
