Managing cross-functional dependencies in growing companies
Promising new product initiatives and projects get derailed by unresolved dependencies. The bigger the company, the greater the number of dependencies and the more difficult it becomes to identify and resolve them. Based on my experience, I think there are only two viable solutions to manage the inevitable cross-functional and technical dependencies of an organization. […]
by Bill Carr
Why behavioral questions outperform hypothetical interview queries
During my 15 years at Amazon, I interviewed hundreds of candidates. One shift I had to make was abandoning interview questions that were hypothetical, case or modeling questions, or in any way not behavioral. There are two problems with hypotheticals: 1) They tell you how a candidate will think, but not how they will behave, […]
by Bill Carr
How to retain high performers and build a winning team
The best way to lose a high performer in your company is to: 1. Fail to recognize that they are a high performer 2. Fail to give them increasing responsibility and challenge 3. Make them work for a manager who is not a high performer 4. Fail to compensate them based on their exceptional abilities […]
by Bill Carr
Avoiding sunk cost fallacy to prioritize real customer needs
One of the most common traps in business is prioritizing business needs over customer needs. This often shows up as the sunk cost fallacy or chasing the “shiny new thing.” Here are some examples: I remember consulting for a large consumer electronics company that had invested heavily in developing a “smart” washing machine. The machine […]
by Bill Carr
Working backwards from customer needs to drive innovation
At most companies, teams start with constraints like budgets, existing technical capabilities, and their current products and markets. Then they ask: “How can we expand our revenue and products given these constraints?” That’s a skills-forward approach — working forwards. At Amazon, we flipped this. We started with the customer and their problems, and we envisioned […]
by Bill Carr
Prioritizing honesty and high standards over social cohesion
Jeff Bezos says “Do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.” Compromise is not a feature of high-performing organizations. At Amazon, the culture demands honesty, objectivity, and accountability, even when it is uncomfortable. A main feature of this is having to challenge your peers, your team, or even your leaders. This is expected of […]
by Bill Carr
How the PR/FAQ process filters the best product ideas
I was once in a meeting with Jeff Bezos where he said, “Stop pitching me on ideas. Ideas are cheap. I had ten of them in the shower this morning!” When working with smart and ambitious people, there is a constant stream of “good” ideas. To Jeff’s point, coming up with ideas isn’t all that […]
by Bill Carr
How Amazon s-team goals drive organizational clarity
Each year, the Amazon S-team (Amazon’s senior leadership group) establishes a list of hundreds of S-team goals. Hundreds! In 2010, there were 452 S-team goals. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are now thousands. These goals were derived from metrics and initiatives proposed by each team during the annual operating plan (OP1) cycle. These were […]
by Bill Carr
Common pitfalls in annual planning and how to avoid them
When I joined Amazon in 1999, it was a high-growth startup with little structure. In particular, our early attempts at annual planning were clumsy. Here are the top 8 pitfalls we have observed along the way: 1) Setting goals but not tracking them Setting goals is easy, but tracking progress with real data requires diligence. […]
by Bill Carr
How to craft an effective vision document for planning
During my 15 years at Amazon, we often started annual planning cycles with a Vision Planning process. This process required senior leaders to prepare a Vision Document. Here’s how they did it. First, the Vision Plans centered on a different theme each year. Some themes were externally focused, such as “How to live in a […]
by Bill Carr