Amazon: Where to focus with limited time

Generally speaking, if you are not ready, don’t risk it. See if you can postpone.

That said, if you only have limited time to focus on preparing for your Amazon interview, we highly recommend that you practice your answers to the following four principles. You will find that in each of them you display elements of the other four principles.

Reminder: All Amazon interview practice is reusable for most companies because it is behavioral in nature. No energy will be lost in your focus to win at interviewing at Amazon.

If you have limited time, focus most heavily on the following four (4) leadership principles:

  1. Customer Obsession

  2. Ownership

  3. Bias for Action

  4. Disagree & Commit

Why? These principles are fundamental to being a successful product manager at Amazon.

  1. The practice questions involve a mix of success and failure stories.

  2. Everyone at Amazon is truly Customer Obsessed

  3. Ownership and Bias for Action means the buck stops with you and you will not get paralyzed by lack of data but rather make the hard choices, even if data is imperfect.

  4. Healthy debate is part of Amazon’s culture, you need to be able to debate, make a strong case for you argument, but then when it is time to move forward, you need to be able to support those you disagree with for the benefit of the product, team and user.

Reminder What Amazon says about these principles:

  1. Customer Obsession
    Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

  2. Ownership

    Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job."

  3. Bias for Action

    Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

  4. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.