Dissecting: Ownership
I am currently preparing for Amazon interviews. As part of my interview process, I will share with you how I approach studying. This is part of a series of “dissecting” Amazon leadership principles.
This is important because Amazon is the Gold Standard of product management behavioral interviews. If you can land Amazon interviews, you can land all other behavioral.
There are two key reasons Amazon interviews are tough:
You can’t repeat your stories.
Interviewers WILL poke to see if you really did what you said you did.
Because of this, you need to prepare 25+ stories, and they ALL need to withstand poking.
My Methodology
You will see I work to flesh out my stories at the highest level using the following rough framework:
Long-term Thinking
Sacrifices
Going the Extra Mile
The Buck Stops with Me
This that in mind, let’s dive into Ownership.
From Amazon
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”.
Let’s keep that in mind as we dive into some of the more common Ownership prompts/questions:
Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility.
Give me an example of a time when you didn't think you were going to meet the commitments you promised.
Tell me about a time you made a hard decision to sacrifice short-term gain for a longer-term goal.
Big Picture Thinking
Most prompts will benefit from you connecting the dots for the interviewer and pointing out your long-term vs. short-term thinking.
You need to display taking on extra responsibilities.
Communicating out when missing deadlines is crucial. (Own the good and the bad.)
Additional prompts:
Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation and what actions did you take? What was the outcome?
What steps do you take to ensure projects you complete get transitioned effectively to new owners?
How do you ensure your team stays connected to the company vision and the bigger picture? Give an example of when you felt a team or individual goal was in conflict with the company vision.
Tell me about an initiative you undertook because you saw that it could benefit the whole company or your customers, but wasn’t within any group’s individual responsibility so nothing was being done.
