In defense of Jeff B – Jeff Bezos, not brother-in-law, Jeff B, who is a prince and needs no defense.

Working at Amazon.com changed the way I think about work, creativity, process, and language.  Which is a lot.  

Some vignettes.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made? That’s the question former Amazonians ask each other when they get together.  We laugh loudly at our mistakes and each other’s, and are delighted that we worked at a place that allowed us enough ownership in the business to both fail fantastically and succeed wildly at stuff we didn’t know how to do when we walked in the door.

Door desks – Everyone in the US has a door desk in honor of the first Bezos desk in his garage.  They are also a symbol frugality, a core value at Amazon.  My ergonomically-customized door desk had long legs, and an adjustable keyboard tray.

Just Do It Award – Awarded quarterly to an individual or small team, the award went to someone who pursued an idea, often after hours, because they thought it was the right thing for the company.  Bonus points if their boss said no and they did it anyway.  The award was one previously owned Nike shoe.  (See frugality, above.)

Two-Pizza Teams – Rather than committees, we had what were called two-pizza teams, ad hoc groups no larger in number than could be fed with two pizzas, which met for as long as it took to solve the problem and then disbanded. A temporary committee?  Pass the Pepperoni!

? – If a customer wrote to Jeff about an issue and he thought it was a process issue, the VP of the relevant team would get a forwarded email with just a “?”.  That ? meant the team had 24 hours to map out what happened, why it happened and what action they’d taken to make sure it never happened again.  Since your VP had to present it at the Bezos “All Up” (all of those who reported up to Jeff), it had to be clear, jargon free, painfully honest and concrete in proposed actions. 

All Hands Meetings Financial Reports – All Hands Meetings were quarterly meetings that all employees attended.  The same VP who discussed the quarterly financial reports with investors would speak to us during the All Hands, explaining the numbers, vocabulary and what to pay attention to, which wasn’t necessarily what the press or Wall Street was paying attention to.  Russell Grandinetti was one of the VPs who led this section of the meeting.  He’d say, “I’m Russ Grandinetti, the guy with the unpronounceable name you see on your paychecks.”  (We cheered!)

2 AM lunch meeting – I worked on the customer service night shift my first year (1998), which gave me a reverse commute, free street parking and an extra dollar an hour.  Jeff came to have lunch with us one morning at 2 AM.  He told us where he saw the company going and why the work the ten of us were doing was so vital to the company.  I never forgot that.  He did the same at the warehouses, regularly visiting and talking to people at every level.

Opportunities to build – Prospective employees are drawn to Amazon by opportunities to build.  To build teams or code or processes which last longer than their time at the company.  In addition to the “Just Do It” award, there’s a “Door Desk” award for building something that would “move the needle” for the company.

“We hired you because you’re smart.  Go figure it out.”  For me, that frequent refrain from Jeff on down, was the best part of Amazon – the freedom and strong expectation that you’d figure it out.