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Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

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Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#61

Post by zentiggr »

polysaturate wrote: post #32
wjamesg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burn down chart?

An actual serious answer: It's a line chart that shows story points starting at the top left in the beginning of the sprint. Which shows all points to be done, trending towards 0 points with 0 days left in the sprint, in the lower right. Linear means that the same points are done each day to allow the line to be perfectly linear between the top left and bottom right.

Sounds like exactly the sort of not-actually-a-real-metric metric that would entrance a number cruncher. Forget those moments of excellence where everything gels and you could get days or weeks ahead... Sigh.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#62

Post by devopsproject »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #41

You have to admire the grit and tenacity it takes to maintain that kind of ethos for 23 years straight. What Jeff is basically saying here in this letter is that the pedal is to the metal, forever: We can't have process as the foundation because it ossifies the organization! Be nimble to the rules of the game. When translated however, that means you are either empowering your organization to change and make new proce…

By almost every account, Amazon is terrible place to work: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-...

This isn't the type of leader you want to be.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#63

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

webscalist wrote: post #51
joshaidan wrote: post #36

I encountered "process as proxy" today dealing with Cisco. We were requesting a replacement for a defective part, they asked us for our serial number, which we provided, but then responded to us that our serial number was invalid. Likely because it wasn't registered. We were told that we had to contact our sales manager, or open a TAC with a different department because they department only deals with technical issue…

No, each microservice does one thing. Yes, they could have provided an orchestrating microservice. But they did a good job. Tech issues microservice should not have knowledge of other departments.

This comment is either incredibly witty and very insightful or it is completely the opposite, and I can't quite tell from just reading it.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#64

Post by mejari »

cmurf wrote: post #52
smokeyj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment seems to be well received based on the points. I think about this often and it drives me nuts that the two party system is the best we have. It's like we're trying to optimize an operating system at every level EXCEPT THE KERNEL. Suggesting that you don't buy into the two party system is met with skepticism, as if you're a closet supporter of one party. Or worse, that by not supporting a party you're imp…

There is an oligopoly in politics called Democrats and Republicans, and they've created, by law, many barriers to entry for any competing parties, let alone casting aside either party. Disruption in this vast market is difficult. Millenials and Xers will have to team up and work cooperatively. The baby boomers have gotten Democrats and Republicans to pander to them, there is no possible way those parties go away if b…

>they've created, by law, many barriers to entry for any competing parties, let alone casting aside either party.

Do you have some examples of these types of laws?

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#66

Post by x2f10 »

I might be shunned for beating the dead horse, but while he talks about 'True Customer Obsession', he allows counterfeit goods erode his customer's trust in Amazon. I'd argue Amazon's 'process as proxy' in dealing with counterfeits is the careless return process. 'Oh, it's counterfeit? We're sorry! Here's your money back!' does not solve the issue. Sure, thanks for the $10 back, but now I must think twice (or thrice!) before ordering from Amazon. Once my Prime membership lapses, I will not renew.

The 'process' for dealing with counterfeits is broken. When the customer has to think about "the chances of counterfeit" or dealing with the return of counterfeit products, it's NOT customer obsession.

I respect Jeff, TONS, but come on. You're talking the talk, but you're not walking the walk.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#67

Post by arikr »

avar wrote: post #50

Odd to see Bezos cite number of Oscars & Emmies as a measure of competence, as opposed to revenue. A lot of movies that win awards aren't particularly good investments.

I imagine it's a marketing tactic to accelerate the flywheel he cares about: more awards -> more talent that wants to write/sell to Amazon Studios -> more exclusive shows -> more customers -> more awards

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#68

Post by AdamN »

TheGRS wrote: post #25
dpark wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not that rare to hear a junior leader defend a bad outcome with something like, “Well, we followed the process.” - Bezos > We sought volunteers and then followed our involuntary denial of boarding process - Munoz Ouch

Yea, I'm not going to share which airline or which branch (other than to say it wasn't United or Chicago), but I have a relative who works at a pretty high position in one of them and they were, to my great surprise, in defense of United and the police in that episode earlier this week. Statements like "airlines bump people all the time", "they can't offer anymore than what they did, its a set rule", and "if they jus…

I'm sympathetic to the airline execs who feel this way - they're right (technically).

However, they're missing the forest for the trees. Their processes are so bad that this type of thing actually ends up happening–which is the symptom of a marge larger loss of trust.

I fly less than I otherwise would if it was a dignified experience. Right now smart VCs are thinking about how to reinvent airlines and let's hope they get in soon.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#69

Post by ChuckMcM »

I wrote an email to Jeff suggesting that Day 2 might be started by losing control over what is sold in his shop.

I really respect the way he thinks about the company and I have bought stock in it as a reflection of that respect. My hope is that he will be able to match 'focus on the customer' with 'don't sell the customer counterfeit or shoddy crap'. With their investment in Machine Learning one would hope they could train that engine to predict where crappy product is going to come from and reject it before it gets into the pipeline.

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