Behavioral: Are Right A Lot

One of the 16 Leadership Principles of Amazon is Are Right A Lot.

This is a famous category of Amazon behavioral questions that is often misunderstood. Some people mistake this for showing that they were right, but everyone else was wrong.

Before I dive into my advice, let’s look at a few sample questions.

1. Tell me about a decision for which data and analysis weren’t sufficient to provide the right course and you had to rely on your judgment and instincts.

2. Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision.

3. Give me an example of when you have to make an important decision in the absence of good data.

4. Tell me about an error in judgment you made.

All of these questions test the “Are Right A Lot” Principle. If you don’t understand the principle, it is hard to see the connection. Let’s dive in a bit more and try to understand the nuances.

What’s the deal?

TL;DR - You are right a lot if you have learned from experience, both good and bad. And some of the best lessons we learn, that build our strongest instincts, come from mistakes we have made in the past. The best answers to all of these questions center around being humble and showing how you learned from your experiences.

• Judgement & Instintcts

  • a natural or intuitive way of acting or thinking.

  • we need experience to build instinct

  • mistakes burn that lesson into our memory (or at least it should)

• Bad Decision

  • if all your decisions were good, odds are you don’t take risks and so you don’t have strong instincts

  • if you make bad decisions but can’t learn from them, you don’t have strong instincts

• Absence of Good Data

  1. PMs make decisions in the absence of perfect data

  2. at other companies, this might be ‘comfort with ambiguity’

• Error in Judgement

  • same as a bad decision but the wording encourages you to accept your judgment was flawed

  • shows humility

My Advice for Candidates

• Always start with your learnings. This keeps the conversation positive.

• Show humility.

• Pick real problems, not softballs

• Take ownership of your mistakes, don’t try to make it about another person’s judgement that you just followed, that makes you look bad on multiple fronts.

Resources

For additional insights on this prompt type, check out Dave Anderson’s take on the subject.