Amazon Operating Cadence

Overview This module explores one of Amazon’s most transformative operating principles: “Manage your inputs, not your outputs.” Participants will learn how Amazon builds a culture of precision and accountability by focusing on controllable, customer-facing input metrics — the drivers that create value and fuel growth — rather than lagging financial results. Through frameworks, data systems, and real-world case studies, this module teaches how to design, measure, and operationalize metrics that directly impact business performance. The goal: to help leaders “swim in the data”, see their businesses with granular clarity, and build scalable mechanisms for continuous improvement.

Learning Objectives By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Define and distinguish input vs. output metrics, and identify which truly drive performance.

• Design controllable, customer-focused input metrics aligned with strategic goals.

• Use data to make fast, high-quality decisions grounded in truth, not opinion.

• Build systems to measure, analyze, and improve metrics continuously using the DMAIC framework.

• Lead Weekly Business Reviews (WBRs) that translate data into insight and insight into action.

Core Content & Frameworks 1. Why Amazon Manages Input Metrics How can leaders understand what’s happening in a complex business at a granular level? By managing inputs — the controllable activities that drive customer experience, cost, and speed — Amazon ensures that desired outputs (like revenue or retention) happen naturally over time. Inputs are leading indicators; outputs are lagging indicators. Focusing on the former creates long-term customer and shareholder value.

2. The DMAIC Framework The DMAIC cycle (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) — the foundation of Amazon’s metrics management:

• Define: Identify the right controllable inputs.

• Measure: Collect accurate, unbiased data.

• Analyze: Understand variances and root causes.

• Improve: Drive initiatives to close performance gaps.

• Control: Sustain improvements through automation and ownership.

• This cycle embeds continuous improvement into the company’s DNA.

3. Characteristics of Input Metrics Effective input metrics are both controllable and customer-facing. Each sustained improvement in an input metric — such as faster delivery, higher accuracy, or lower defect rate — compounds into long-term growth. The Amazon Flywheel Diagram visualizes how these inputs reinforce one another: selection, price, customer experience, traffic, and sellers — all driving growth.

4. Outputs vs. Inputs Practical examples:

• Outputs: Revenue, churn, active customers, stock price.

• Inputs: Fast-track in-stock %, delivery time (tp90), cost per shipment, new listings per merchant.

• This distinction helps leaders shift focus from financial results to operational levers they can actually control.

5. How to Identify Your Inputs A process for uncovering key inputs:

1. Start with outputs and work backwards.

2. Map the end-to-end customer experience (illustrated in a process diagram on workbook).

3. Conduct post-mortems for errors and defects.

4. Mine customer support data for recurring patterns.

5. Build an input tree that traces each output metric to its underlying drivers.

The Metrics Cloud Diagram on workbook expands this into a web of interconnected factors — cost, fulfillment, safety, inventory, and returns — showing how metrics cascade across systems.

7. Leadership Philosophy: “Swim in Data” As Jeff Bezos states: “Humans are unbelievably data efficient… the way we teach a self-driving car, you have to drive a million miles.” Leaders must immerse themselves in data until insights emerge naturally — turning data review into a reflex, not an event.

8. Weekly Business Review (WBR) The WBR operationalizes input metrics into a weekly rhythm:

• ~250 metrics reviewed by ~50 leaders in a one-hour session.

• Focus: patterns, variances, and exceptions — not what went as expected.

• Each leader prepares to explain metric movements and corrective actions.

• Data is presented in a “4-blocker” format showing trends over time.

• Operational and strategic discussions are kept separate for clarity.

This cadence ensures leadership visibility and rapid response to emerging issues.

9. Roles, Responsibilities & Culture The WBR meeting reinforces a culture of accountability and learning:

• Presenters: Own their metrics, analyze variance, and explain outliers.

• Presentees (e.g., CEO, CFO): Ask probing questions, challenge assumptions, and coach.

• The process institutionalizes transparency — no hiding behind averages, excuses, or vanity metrics.

10. Tips, Watchouts & Implementation Workbook provide practical guidance for rollout:

• Do:

  • Brainstorm widely — more metrics at first is better.

  • Include output metrics for context.

  • Focus on customer journey, speed, quality, and cost.

• Don’t:

  • Use averages (Amazon prefers top percentiles and root mean square error).

  • Create compound or vanity metrics.

  • Limit thinking to what’s measurable today — invent new ways to track value.

The final section outlines a step-by-step milestone plan to implement this process company-wide: identify pilot teams, build metric inventories, create the WBR deck, and train leaders to lead with data.

Overview In 2004, Jeff Bezos faced a problem: Amazon’s senior leadership meetings weren’t producing the right results. PowerPoint-heavy sessions led to repeated discussions, shallow insights, and unclear decisions. The solution? Narratives — six-page written documents that replaced slides with structured thinking, deeper analysis, and data-driven clarity. This module immerses participants in Amazon’s unique narrative-driven culture, showing how writing — not presenting — became one of the company’s most powerful leadership tools. Participants learn to communicate ideas with precision, to think critically and deeply, and to transform how decisions are made across teams.

Learning Objectives By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Understand why Amazon banned PowerPoint and adopted narrative writing.

• Write clear, concise, data-rich narratives that drive alignment and decision-making.

• Apply Amazon’s six-page memo and meeting reading protocol effectively.

• Distill complex, multi-causal ideas into actionable, evidence-based insights.

• Lead narrative meetings that produce better discussions and faster, higher-quality decisions.

Core Content & Frameworks 1. The Problem with PowerPoint How Amazon discovered the flaws of slide-based communication:

• Bullet points oversimplify complex ideas.

• Meetings become low-bandwidth information transfer sessions — 75% presentation, only 25% discussion.

• Quality of design often outweighs quality of thinking.

• PowerPoint made life easy for presenters but hard for audiences — reducing clarity, not increasing it.

2. The Power of Narratives Narratives were introduced as an information multiplier:

• Force authors to synthesize ideas deeply.

• Deliver 7–9x higher information density than slides.

• Convey multi-causal systems more effectively.

• Remove presentation bias — where delivery skill overshadows substance.

• Provide a permanent, reusable record of reasoning and data.

3. What Is a Narrative A narrative is:

• A written document in prose, not bullet points.

• Includes charts, tables, and metrics within the text.

• Supported by detailed appendices.

• It is both a thinking tool and a decision document, combining logic, data, and clarity.

4. The Discipline of Writing Great narratives:

• Require multiple drafts and team collaboration.

• Take weeks of work, not days.

• Demand brevity and synthesis — “Deliver insight, not mountains of data.”

• Use plain language that anyone, even a new CEO, can understand.

• Eliminate fluff, opinions, and adjectives — every sentence must add value.

• As Jeff Bezos said, “Less is more.” The writing process itself becomes an act of leadership thinking.

5. Truth-Seeking and Data Integrity Amazon’s intellectual rigor:

• Don’t “pitch” ideas — let data and logic speak.

• Anticipate counterarguments and include alternative solutions.

• Replace adjectives like “strong growth” with facts:

  • Wrong: “iPad sales accelerated.”

  • Correct: “iPad sales grew 22% month-over-month to $125MM.”

  • This mindset drives intellectual honesty — the cornerstone of Amazon’s culture.

6. FAQs: Anticipate and Clarify Effective narratives include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, anticipating executive queries. If answers are not yet available, the author documents clear next steps and deadlines — maintaining transparency and accountability.

7. Running a Narrative Meeting Amazon’s standard narrative meeting, as detailed on workbook, follows a strict format:

• 20 minutes: Silent reading for high-bandwidth information transfer.

• 40 minutes: Deep, structured discussion.

• This ensures everyone begins with full context and focuses discussion on insight and decision-making. The result: deeper understanding, better decisions, and tighter alignment.

8. Types of Narrative Documents List of narrative applications across Amazon:

• Operating Plans (OP1/OP2)

• MBRs and QBRs

• PR/FAQs for new products

• Correction of Error (COE) and Root Cause Analyses (RCA)

• Business Requirements Documents (BRDs)

• Policy or SOP proposals

• Narratives are Amazon’s universal management language, spanning operations, product, HR, and policy.

9. Rules and Protocols Amazon’s disciplined communication etiquette:

• Strict limits: 6 pages for 1-hour meetings, 3 pages for 30-minute meetings.

• “This document is longer than six pages — which six do you want me to read?” — Jeff Bezos.

• Inline comments only: Authors respond before discussion.

• Structured debate: Comments addressed sequentially, with the senior-most executive speaking last to avoid bias.

10. How Leaders Read Narratives How senior leaders — including Jeff Bezos — engage with narratives:

• Start by assuming each sentence is wrong until proven otherwise.

• Seek truth, not agreement.

• Ask:

  1. What are the key inputs and facts?

  2. Is the plan realistic?

  3. Are resources aligned?

• Bezos viewed reading as teaching — using leadership principles to guide debate.

11. The Big Picture The diagram on workbook visualizes how narratives interlock with other Amazon mechanisms — the 3–5 year vision, OP1/OP2, WBRs, and QBRs. Narratives serve as the connective tissue between strategy, planning, and execution — turning communication into a mechanism for continuous alignment.

Overview This module teaches one of Amazon’s most famous innovation mechanisms: Working Backwards. At Amazon, every new product, service, or initiative begins not with a business plan or technology concept, but with a Press Release and FAQ (PR/FAQ) — a simple, powerful document that defines success through the customer’s eyes. Participants will learn how to reverse-engineer innovation by starting with the customer experience and working backward to the systems, features, and processes needed to make it real. This approach eliminates waste, fosters creativity, and builds products that customers truly love.

Learning Objectives By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Apply Amazon’s Working Backwards method to develop customer-obsessed innovations.

• Write a compelling Press Release (PR) that clearly defines customer problems and benefits.

• Build a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that anticipates business, technical, and operational challenges.

• Balance customer desirability with feasibility and financial viability.

• Integrate PR/FAQ development into the broader Amazon Operating Cadence (WBR, OP1/OP2, QBR).

Core Content & Frameworks 1. Start with the Customer The PR/FAQ process begins with a single question: “What does the ideal customer experience look like?” This mindset reorients innovation around customer needs, not internal assumptions — a practice that differentiates Amazon’s culture of invention.

2. The Operating Cadence The diagram on workbook illustrates how PR/FAQs fit within Amazon’s operating rhythm:

• Weekly Business Reviews (WBRs) surface new ideas and pain points.

• These ideas evolve into PR/FAQs, which are then reviewed as formal initiatives.

• Successful proposals are rolled into OP1/OP2 plans and measured via QBRs.

• This system keeps innovation continuous, structured, and strategically aligned.

3. The Press Release Amazon’s original Kindle press release is showcased — the gold standard for defining vision and value. The exercise: write a hypothetical announcement for your future product as if it’s already launched. A strong PR:

• Defines the customer and the problem.

• Describes the solution and why it’s compelling.

• Answers “why this matters now.”

• If the story isn’t exciting or clear enough, Amazon teams rewrite it — again and again — until it is.

4. The FAQs Following the press release, participants draft FAQs to stress-test their ideas:

• External FAQs: What would customers, journalists, or partners ask?

• Internal FAQs: What are the economics, dependencies, and resources required for success?

• This dual approach forces leaders to think both strategically and operationally, bridging the gap between aspiration and execution.

5. PR/FAQ Best Practices Amazon’s principles for great PR/FAQs define their cultural DNA:

• Obsess over the customer. Define their problem with clarity and empathy.

• Value truth-seeking over selling. Challenge your own assumptions.

• Prioritize velocity over speed. Move fast, but with discipline and purpose.

• Treat innovation as continuous. The PR/FAQ process runs year-round, not just during planning season.

6. The Weekly Innovation Rhythm The example on the workbook shows how Amazon embeds PR/FAQ creation into its weekly schedule:

• Mondays start with WBR reviews (data-driven insights).

• Midweek includes S&OP and PR/FAQ sessions.

• Fridays close with Correction of Error (COE) discussions and customer time.

• Innovation isn’t isolated — it’s built into the management cadence itself.