Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon Hardcover – February 9, 2021

In my lifetime there has always been one company that was held up as the paragon of all that is good and innovative in business. We were supposed to emulate that company. GM was first, followed by IBM, then by GE. Now it's Amazon's turn. If you’re seeking insight into what made Amazon successful so far, you’ll love this book. There are many examples and things you can try regardless of the business you’re in.But this book is different from most books about what to copy from great companies. It tells you about the background of Amazon’s best practices. You’ll learn why Amazon adopted them and follow the sometimes-tedious process of development. You’ll discover why some lauded practices (e.g., two-pizza teams) have been superseded.Working Backwards does not turn Jeff Bezos into an all-wise, infallible business saint either. That’s important because it allows you to appreciate the role teams can play in developing processes. It’s also evidence that you don’t need a Jeff Bezos to succeed.Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 and spent twelve years there. Most relevant for this book, for two years he was Jeff Bezos’ chief of staff. Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than fifteen years there. He and his teams launched and managed the company’s global digital music and video businesses. The result is a true “view from inside.”The book is divided into two parts. The first, “Being Amazonian,” is about foundational principles and practices and Amazon culture. Jeff Bezos described the culture this way.“Our culture is four things: customer obsession instead of competitor obsession; willingness to think long term, with a longer investment horizon than most of our peers; eagerness to invent, which of course goes hand in hand with failure; and then, finally, taking professional pride in operational excellence.”That’s basic, but not operational. This section also goes into detail on Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles and several operating practices. This will be the most helpful part of the book for most readers. You’ll get ideas on how to hire more effectively, why some team practices work and others don’t, and why Amazon relies on the written word to develop and communicate ideas.You’ll discover why Amazon uses leading indicators to manage performance. There’s a chapter on the principle of “working backwards” that is so important, that the authors chose it for the title of the book. They describe it this way.“Working Backwards is a systematic way to vet ideas and create new products. Its key tenet is to start by defining the customer experience, then iteratively work backwards from that point until the team achieves clarity of thought around what to build.”Working backwards is one of those “simple but not easy” ideas. The good news is the authors go into detail on the process and tools Amazon uses to make it happen. They’re adaptable to most businesses regardless of size or industry.The chapter on leadership principles and mechanisms plus any other chapter in the first section are worth the price of the book several times over.Part 2 is “The Invention Machine at Work.” Chapters describe the development of Kindle, Prime, Prime Video, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Each chapter is an example of how the principles and practices outlined in Part 1 guided product development in a real situation.Praise to whoever is responsible for two devices that make this book more helpful. One is detailed appendices with examples that you can use as models, as well as a timeline to show you what was happening and when. The other is the practice of beginning each chapter with a short overview of what you’ll find in it.In a NutshellAny business reader will benefit from reading Working Backwards, applying the principles, and adapting the practices Amazon uses so successfully.

During my career, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to serve in senior leadership roles at leading tech companies including Microsoft and Apple. I also had the good fortune to be recruited by Bill to join Amazon when he led the company’s digital music and video businesses and the honor to be part of that amazing team and journey. Bill epitomizes everything that is great about Amazon and I am very pleased that he and Colin have invested the time and effort to create this book to share their learning and experience for the benefit of others. Working Backwards deserves to be on a shortlist of business books that matter.Amazon’s culture is remarkable, and Amazon is undoubtedly one of the best-run companies in the world. As Bill and Colin describe in their powerful book, this is 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. Building such a culture is challenging for any company but doing so at the scale and breadth of Amazon is nothing short of incredible. This culture and customer focus have fundamentally changed the world in so many ways and raised the bar for all companies in terms of how customers now expect to be treated.Many companies admire and seek to learn from and implement many aspects of Amazon’s approach. Bill and Colin have written the best handbook I have seen on how Amazon actually works, and any business leader will benefit from reading it.

I enjoyed reading this book. It’s a little bit more academic and a description of the Amazon journey. But what I really enjoyed was there six page executive summary. This was essentially an idea of a press release and FAQs. They love the concept of abolishing PowerPoint slides. This is a good read for the thoughtful business owner. Someone who really wants to make a deep long lasting change in their business. Because I believe trying to be Amazonian is extremely hard work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on several levels. If you are an entrepreneur or business leader (or student of business), it is a "must read" -- and I say that having read many books about successful businesses as well as high profile business failures (eg, Long Term Capital Management, Enron, Theranos, etc). It presents a panoply of principles and processes that Amazon honed over many years by trial and error, and which have contributed to Amazon's tremendous success. Importantly, these principles and processes, to varying degrees, can be scaled to apply to other businesses -- from start-ups to large businesses -- across industries. Some of these principles are not intuitive, or even somewhat counter-intuitive, such as Amazon's decision to ban use of PowerPoint presentations and insist on using (seemingly tedious) 6 page narratives for presenting and evaluating prospective new ventures or products. The authors do a great job using concrete examples of how the principles and processes worked in practice at Amazon, and how they could work in other contexts as well. These examples are presented through the lens of each authors unique experience at Amazon, with many interesting and often humorous anecdotes that bring life to the book, insight into one of the world's most innovative companies, and make Working Backwards much more than just a "business" book. Anyone who is curious about Amazon -- or who wants a voyeuristic "peek" into what it would be like to work with Jeff Bezos and within Amazon's senior leadership team -- will enjoy this book.

What I really enjoyed about this book is the approach towards challenging the norms and not being afraid of innovation or failure. I will use this book as I progress in my career.