Yonatan Orpeli’s Post

Why is API literacy important for Product Managers? It depends on their job responsibilities, but API expertise can dramatically improve product creation and creativity. Inspired by Jeff Bezos' strategy at Amazon, where he famously mandated that “API exposure across teams resulted in the development of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the broader API economy, I investigated the critical role APIs play in fostering growth, yielding insights on their types and strategic use for product managers.” #ProductManagement #API #TechProductManagement

Curious to know how #aws is organized for innovation? Today, I attended a very insightful conference organized by #DBWC and #AWS Middle East . Here are my main takeaways on how #aws implemented a culture of innovation: 1- Customer obsession culture : #Amazon’s mission is to be the Earth most customer centric company. Not everyone can compete with Amazon at this level of customer centricity. Yet, I believe that having « customers at heart » should be a cornerstone of any project/business. 2- Failure and inventions are inseparable twins: - Invention is an experiment : if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. - Fail fast and learn from your failures. 3- Work backwards: This principle is my favorite one. At Amazon, before you launch a new product or service, you have to write down its Press Release and FAQ to get more clarity (as a text document, not a presentation) 4- Two pizza teams (small, decentralized and nimble teams) are agile and fast fostering ownership and autonomy. 5- Everyone is a leader. Anyone in the company can innovate. AWS provides the architecture and organization (e.g. 2 pizza teams, single threaded leaders) to support innovation. PS: Below is a snapchat of Amazon’s leadership principles as Food for Thought.

You asked, we listened. Software companies want to maximize their cloud investments and push the boundaries of product innovation, but need to know how. This year at re:Invent, the ISV team is raising the bar, and has focused on just that. We are bringing AWS leaders, leading ISVs, visionaries and experts together and building content sessions that share product innovation best practices. A chief product officer (CPO) forum and an exclusive meeting-of-the-minds program will provide an opportunity to meet pan-Amazon leaders. A re:Invent ticket is the only way to unlock your access to these exciting programs and fuel your product innovation ideas. Don’t miss your chance to reconnect with your network, recharge your skills, and get ready to transform your product roadmaps. Still unsure? See the recap from last year. Register for re:Invent and ask your AWS account manager to secure your spot for "AWS for Software Companies" Executive Forums. I hope to see you there! #awsforsoftware Lauren Adams Melissa Pabian, CMP Brooke Smith Steven Steffas Neil Citron Carol Potts Sree Anand Ratnasinghe Barry Morris David Cristini Anasuya Morrill Strasner Connie De Lange Adam Miller Atul Deo Massimo Ghislandi Aditi Kohli Stefanie Haumann Jill Bartram Milind Pande Derrick Knight Sai Lolayekar Lauren Ridge, MBA Andy Perkins Grace Clark Michael Cunningham

#Amazon has a specific way to innovate. We call this method "Working Backwards". Choong Lee decribes in this article the secrets of product management at #AWS. - Working Backwards: being customer obsessed - The Amazon product manager: the true voice of the customer - The need for speed: optimizing product teams for success - Measuring what matters: metrics for iterative innovation 10 minutes well spend. https://lnkd.in/dK7FvTdn #productmanagement

One of things about PM at #AWS and Amazon in general is about diving deep. I mean really get into it - technical architecture, code, github comments, issues, every line item on a P&L, every assumption, every measurable metric being measured (if useful). Being able to do this daily, with accuracy and consistency requires rigor. All leaders operate this way. Its fundamental to success especially when innovating new products working backwards from customers. It takes tenacity and resilience and most of all, curiosity. If you want to be a value added PM, you need to do this daily - with great communication.

This month I celebrate 10 years of thinking outside the box at AWS. I’ve loved the disruption, the impact, the obsessing over our customers… and of course it’s still only day 1. Here’s some key takeaways from the last decade that have been meaningful for me. * Long term trumps the short term. It’s why I love being a builder, working backwards from our customers. Jeff said “we've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.” Sometimes we try and rush to hit the goal here and now; be disciplined, and don’t compromise on the customer experience. * Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a meeting or a call where you’re alone in your thinking, where you believe in a different approach. That’s ok. Jeff said “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.” Continue innovating and continue being misunderstood - and the results will speak for themselves. * With so much to do every day, the todo list is never done. Prioritizing is key to not burning out, and being intentional where you spend your time will help you hit your goals and have the impact you want to have. Jeff said “part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way.” Enjoy the journey and worry less about the destination, since it will change a lot during your time here anyway. * Lastly, it’s OK to fail. Yes of course we want to be successful and make history, but you only get there by making mistakes along the way – and learning from them. Jeff said “it's not an experiment if you know it's going to work.” Go outside the box, re-invent, disrupt, challenge the status quo. Be a builder who builds, there’s enough critics out there already. I’m as excited as ever starting this year, and can’t wait to see what the next decade holds. Thanks for being part of my journey – now let’s keep building. #aws #amazon #workaversary #day1

One year at Amazon went by quickly! I came to learn what AWS does differently to be the #1 cloud platform business on the planet. Three learnings that have made the most impact for me so far: dive deep, write crisp and drive P&L (profit & loss of the business). The place has an outstanding culture in each of these aspects. These don’t fit a framework, they are simply observations I have made. I debated listing customer obsession as the fourth, but feel that “sky is blue” is not a learning or insight. Dive deep. I thought I already had high attention to detail, but only here learned what diving deep truly means when I found myself on the shallow end of the information pool on occasions when probed. Leaders here have relentlessly high standards and attention to detail. Write crisp. I thought I was a writer before I joined, yet writing is what I’ve learned here the most. This is the place that championed the writing narratives that the rest of the tech industry copied. The original still stands out. Writing forces you to think, rethink and rethink, providing immense clarity of thought for you first, then your audience. Writing for those who don't have prior context and limited time to read forces you to rethink and rewrite further. Writing better is the best learning I’ve had at Amazon. Drive P&L. I have driven P&L (profit & loss of the business) in other places. I have done revenue projections and goals. I’ve run pro forma for cash flows for 1-5 years, and net present value comparison of projects. I have run evaluations on which businesses to invest in or divest from my product portfolio. This place does P&L better than any other place I’ve seen, by focusing on costs and margins at single product/SKU level and BU level than at the company level. And optimizing for those costs. The best part - everyone from leaders, finance and product managers care about and contribute to driving P&L here in the right direction. I’m still learning something new everyday. Stay tuned for more insights. #oneyearanniversary #amazon #productmanagment #aws

Dive into Amazon's Documentation Culture: PRFQs, Six-Page Narratives, and the birth of AWS. Discover the keys to innovation with Amit Kumar PM at Amazon. 🚀💼 Watch Full Video on Youtube 👉 https://lnkd.in/gbRTJJmK Meera Khokhani Talvinder Singh Rakhi Krishnan Gaganjeet Kaur Sawhney #AmazonInnovation #DocumentationCulture #businessstrategy

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐱, 𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐀, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐛𝐚𝐦𝐚’𝐬 2012 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧? 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐛 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 (𝐀𝐖𝐒). 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐖𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨… This post is co-created by Shashi Matta and Maximilian Bauer Ianne Nagem, Ryan Porter, and Rajul Doriwala from the Professional Services team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted us and our #MBA cohort from WFI - Ingolstadt School of Management at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, as part of the 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐌𝐁𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦. As the undisputed, global leader in cloud computing for over a decade, AWS provides cutting-edge, on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to governments, organizations, and individuals. So, what makes AWS, AWS? Here are 3 of the many lessons from our visit – 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 # 1: A culture infused with strong Leadership Principles is reflected in every task and action. “We’re not Competitor obsessed. We are Customer obsessed.” – Jeff Bezos ➡ Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles (the first of which is Customer Obsession) guide how Amazonians make decisions, solve problems, and interact with customers and partners, creating a culture of excellence that is palpable. These principles are deeply ingrained in the company's DNA. 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 # 2: Start with the “Press Release and FAQ” for a new product and work backwards. “Start by defining the customer experience, then iteratively work backwards until the team achieves clarity of thought around what to build.” - Colin Bryar & Bill Carr, “Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon” ➡ Before a single line of code is written or a prototype is built, Amazon teams write a mock Press Release and FAQ for the product. This forces them to think deeply about the customer benefits and anticipate questions or concerns. Starting with the end in mind ensures that every product solves a real problem and delivers massive value. It also aligns teams around a shared vision. 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 # 3: You should be able to feed your team with Two Pizzas, otherwise it’s too big. “Create small, independent teams to avoid bureaucracy.” – John Rossman, “The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company ➡ By creating small, independent teams, you avoid the bureaucracy and sluggishness that can plague large organizations. When teams are small, communication is seamless, decision-making is fast, and everyone feels ownership over their work. They're hotbeds of creativity, experimentation, and rapid learning. To the incredible team at Amazon Web Services (AWS), thank you for hosting us and sharing your #passion. Your #energy 🚀 was unmissable! Our gratitude to Shachi Govil at University of California, Davis - Graduate School of Management for orchestrating the immersion visits. Shape your Future. Be INNOVATION READY.

A Decade at Amazon - Reflections After a 10-year journey at Amazon, I recently transitioned from a yellow badge to the red corporate employee badge. While there is room for improvement at Amazon, I'm struck by how much I've learned and grown, thanks to Amazon's culture and leaders. In my last 10 years, I've had the opportunity to work across different organizations in stores, AWS, and Alexa as an individual contributor and as a manager in technical program management and engineering disciplines. Some of the most profound lessons that will stick with me include: 1. Following leadership principles unifies a company's culture and boosts productivity. 2. The importance of deep understanding, practice, and insisting on the highest standards. 3. Driving outcomes over empires and being strategically patient yet tactically impatient in pursuing customer obsession. 4. Having an insatiable curiosity and beginner's mindset. 5. Every customer issue represents an upstream process deficiency that needs to be identified and resolved urgently. 6. Prioritizing and tackling the hottest, highest impact items first. 7. Being "green-lighted" doesn't mean risk-free, and transparently calling out risks with projected issue dates. 8. Prioritizing input goals you can control before output goals, and optimizing inputs relentlessly. 9. Goals are directional, not dogmatic, and undershooting or overshooting can be acceptable if customers are delighted. 10. While off-the-shelf solutions can cover 80%, investing in tailored solutions for the remaining 20% is critical. 11. Simplicity, incremental progress, and smart automation are core philosophies. 12. Transparency in prioritization rationale and openness to adjusting the roadmap based on new inputs. 13. Sticking to your strongest points persuades better than attempting to discuss everything. 14. Removing blockers is your responsibility, not someone else's, and committing 100% once a group decision is made. 15. Embracing failures as learning opportunities in complex operations. This enriching decade has been about customer obsession, frugality, ownership, never stopping learning, highest standards, and delivering robust solutions. I'm grateful for the growth I've experienced here.