I was interested to read this book to understand the way Amazon thinks. They have their company in so many different achievements - TV, Books. Shopping. Reading devices, Electronice devices for smart homes, etc. I wondered how they kept up with it all.
This book gave me the insight to understand it so much better. They do seem to make customer service their number one priority, which is great. They do seem to have a working team for every structure of the company,and there are many all over the world.
I thank the authors publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was interesting to me because I have always wanted to know a little more about Amazon. I enjoyed reading and learning more. I feel I took a few tips and tricks with me from this book to use in my every day life with my career. *This book was given to me for free at my request from NetGalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

This book articulated so well some of the recent challenges I’ve faced in business and business leadership, and theories for overcoming them. While I don’t agree with all of Jeff Bezos’ model, I do share his “unshakeable conviction that the long-term interests of shareowners are perfectly aligned with the interests of customers.” I’d go further to say that true service to the latter is the only way to truly benefit the former in the long run, but too often in the modern economy we sacrifice long term success and customer retention for short-sighted savings or “wins” that keep shareholders happy without thought to customer needs and benefits. By “Working Backwards,” we can help restore the alignment.

As a good leader, investigating the reasoning behind insights is often more illuminating than the insights themselves. Rather than the short-sighted, urgency driven “We have Problem Y, let’s solve Problem Y,” asking a series of “And why is that?” questions to get to the underlying, often systemic root of the problem and address those processes, mindsets and systems rather than the isolated event. (The Amazon “Correction of Errors” profess based on the Five Whys developed at Toyota). “The probability that you’re actually looking at the actual root cause of the problem on the initial 24 hours is pretty close to zero

Other top takeaways:
-If your team is hitting every goal, the bar has been set too low. Expect to hit 75%, and take some risk.
-“Amazon’s belief that focusing on controllable input metrics instead of output metrics drives meaningful growth. Morale is, in a sense, an output metric. I’d you clear the impediment to building, morale takes care of itself.”
-The PR/FAQ in which even technical teams must present a 6-page narrative, draft press release and FAQ document for a product or initiative that clearly outlines the benefit to customers or stakeholders. Why is this offering compelling enough for customers to take action and buy it?
-The concept of the Andon Cord, where any employee has agency to improve the process in real time
-“Have backbone; Disagree and commit.” Be passionate about making your case, particularly your dissent. And, once a decision is made, commit to it— even if it wasn’t yours.

I worked with Colin and Bill at Amazon, and I'm glad they set down a no-nonsense, practical survey of management principles, processes, and techniques used by Amazon to run its businesses over the years. Most business books are padded with fluff after a statement of the theory. In contrast, Colin and Bill's stories from Amazon show the journey by which Amazon came up with these ideas and codified these practices. This leaves you room to understand how you might come up with principles of your own within your own company.

I certainly don't think Amazon's way of running itself is the "best." Every company should right size practices to its context. Amazon's very logical, memo-driven operational style is well-suited to abstract thinking. This very phono-graphic style allows for horizontal scalability; note how many business lines of extreme variation Amazon is in versus its technology peers. On the other hand, it's a style not as well-suited to things that require an emotional connection to the customer, like hardware products or high-end luxury retail.

Still, every business should incorporate at least some of these ideas in its operations.

Pretty good analysis on the workings of Amazon and how their strong their dominance in their approach. The authors provided a variety of scenarios the successes of Amazon. It's like being on the inside, but I'm sure there are more that are missing in this book, but that may required a lot of books to cover the complete working of this massive company. This is the 3rd book I have read on Amazon and it's amazing how much about then I learn. WOW!!!!

This book was ok for me. I enjoyed the little tips and such about running your own business. I just thought it was going to be something else.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is very well-written and provides a really great insight into successful companies.

Thank you NetGalley for this wonderful read. I liked all the useful tips and metrics shared in this book that any business can implement or model from. The story of these execs is fascinating and inspiring for all budding enterpreners and managers in general. The working spectrum of Amazon built of not just the leadership of one individual but rather a set of processes and practices streamlined for everyone in the company tell you a lot about why it is so successful and relentlessly growing. I only wish it could have been more concise and also included a set of glossary to explain some internal Amazon terms.

This was an excellent book with lots of great information about how Amazon grew into the company that it is today. The actionable insights are ones that any company can apply to its own growth. I especially liked the concept of the PR/FAQ and we plan to integrate that into our own company as well.

4 Stars

Review placed on Goodreads and Amazon

I have to tell you this book is very good with the information provided. The authors presented their information clearly and laid out beautifully the processes on many levels of what made Amazon the success it is today. It was engaging and entertaining which can be tough in a business book.

I do have one criticism that caused me to mark down the book. In business books only, I like a conciseness that almost presents a "Just the Facts, Ma'am" mentality. This book lacked that throughout. I felt, had this book been a bit tighter, it would have been shorter and a quicker read.

I'd still recommend the book, but that criticism did stand out to me.

Reviewed for publisher via Netgalley.

Working Backward helps readers look forward

Posted on March 3, 2021 by michellelovatosbookreviews, world's first book color commentator, book reviews with a twist

There are two game-changing business books I’ve read in the past decade that re-wired my business imagination: How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, and now, Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by 14-year-veteran Amazon leaders Colin Bryar and Bill Carr.
Released Feb. 9 from St. Martin’s Press, this is a fascinating account of two men’s “access to the Amazon way,” of doing business that solidified and stabilized the business jungle’s long-term success model. These two men helped Amazon achieve three magical business success tenents; creating a product that is “repeatable, scalable and adaptable.”
Told in anecdotal style, Bryar and Carr share secrets and experiences that formed their personal and professional lives. These authors offer lessons learned from their on-the-ground experiences as leaders “Being Amazonian” within the massive company.
“With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company – no matter the size – the authors illuminate how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence,” publishing professionals write.
Working Backwards is a thinking person’s book. It’s a focused read, or in my case, focused audio listen that is not to be taken on while wandering around backcountry roads in mid-December. Rather, it’s a book worthy of note-taking. It’s a book worthy of owning a hard copy and audio version so the reader can highlight and listen to its sage and valuable advice.
I never expect to be like these two leaders in their dedication and understanding of the environment they helped raise to the top of the business pile. I know my future goals are focused more on my children and grandchildren than chopping down a rainforest of business.
That does not mean, however, I cannot take this fascinating advice to heart, apply it to my success goals, and create a sharply focused, forward-thinking, creative, and practical legacy for my future.

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Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalm 128: 1-2

I enjoyed this quick read about Amazon. It gave some good business insights about how Amazon works and why. I would have been interested on why the authors left the company. I was also a little confused with all the Amazon specific teams like S team. Maybe adding a glossary would be helpful.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

This is a wonderful book . . . Concise and useful for anyone in the business world. It’s also a fascinating insight into Amazon and it’s success. Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.
Well worth the read . . .thank you Net Galley for an advance opportunity to read this book!!

***Thank you NetGalley for providing me with access to this e-preview. This review is based on an ARC.***

Whether you subscribe to all that Amazon has to offer or not; one cannot deny the impact the organization has on technology, products, and the world. It was neat to read from the perspective of two individuals that were "in the room where it happened."

Carr and Bryar write in a way that is accessible and approachable to readers and business-minded people at any level. I am not from a business industry, but I liked their knowledge on how to bring a product or plan to fruition. Their examples can be easily adapted to the real world. I will be recommended to my relative currently in a MBA program for light reading in between their courses.

I knew about the mission of customer first, the six-page memo instead of PowerPoint, and frugal doors-as-desks mandate so I skipped the first half of the book and went straight to the four case studies: Kindle, Prime, Prime Video, AWS. They were fast-paced, yet detailed, filled with interesting anecdotes (Jobs demoing Apple’s first PC programming effort—it sucked). The writing was terrific, information solid, and honest.

It was good enough to get me to return to the beginning of the book to learn about the evolution and refinement of the tools that allowed—and now enable—Amazon to succeed (constantly referenced in the case studies).

The “being Amazonian” rah rah can get a bit tiresome. And anyone who sees Amazon (and Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.) as evil would probably find little to like, but it’s clear that these systems and process work.

What strikes me is how this now mammoth company can continue to innovate and execute organically. Working Backwards is both a history lesson and a playbook for others to follow. It’s possible if you have the discipline.

I read this book about Amazon on my Amazon Kindle, nested in its Amazon Kindle case.... So I may be slightly biased lol. As a UX researcher, I've always been intrigued by how Amazon is so successful. This book explains it all. Some non-fiction books are packed with great info, but dreadful to read. The writing style used for this book was fantastic, all the content served a purpose, and the info is pure gold! This is a must-read.

Working Backwards is a fantastic read - truly an in depth look at the most behemoth of companies and how they do business. In Part One, Colin Bryar and Bill Carr - two former VPs at Amazon - have provided us with a peek behind the curtain at what makes Amazonians tick. We learn about all of the things that make the company truly one-of-a-kind, from the company's 14 ever evolving leadership principles and unique hiring process, to their user-centric "working backwards" philosophy that designs products starting with a press release to ensure the customer's needs are met. I particularly enjoyed the reasoning behind the company moving away from powerpoints to instead communicating ideas and decisions through written narratives, to ensure that poorly presented ideas (that could in concept be great) are not overlooked, and that a strong, dynamic presenter doesn't sell through a decision that would actually be a detriment to the company. In Part Two, the authors highlight some of Amazon's most successful inventions - along with some of their critical failures. It is incredible to see the challenges that the company takes on, and their willingness to innovate based on customer needs.

Overall, I thought this book was absolutely fascinating. It's full of anecdotes and examples, and included quite a bit of practical direction that can be applied by anyone in business. It is well written, and quite a bit more than a traditional "business" book. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to drive innovation and growth in their company, or even for someone simply looking to understand Jeff Bezos and his relentless quest for success.

Wow! This is an exceptional behind the scenes look at what makes Amazon tick in so many different industries like high tech (AWS), logistics (fulfilled by amazon) and likely many underway (pillpack & beyond anyone?!). There have been many books about Amazon (the everything store has been my favorite) but none written by folks with first hand knowledge and active participation to make these businesses successful.

Colin and Bill were senior executives at amazon and share their experiences and learnings in candid detail. While amazon product management practices like press release and FAQs are well known in product circles, how they are used to rally and align teams across organization were some of the more interesting insights for me.

Definitely a book that I am going to re-read a few times. Thanks Colin and Bill for sharing your perspective and insights!

I've read plenty of business books over the years, and to be blunt, this is one of the best I've come across. I predict that this will quickly make its way onto required reading lists at business schools, alongside the likes of Good to Great.

Throughout this book, Colin Bryar and Bill Carr provide an insider's perspective on key moments at Amazon, including analyses of the decision-making process and after-the-fact reflections on what went right, what went wrong, what they learned, and how the learnings can be applied at other businesses and organizations. This is one of the few business books I've come across that I immediately knew that I'll be returning to repeatedly in future years, and the first that I could imagine myself giving copies to others as well.

Working Backwards is a key concept in the Amazon development process. This involves thinking of what the end customer experience should be and working backwards from there to design and develop towards that end result. In this book, Working Backwards, two former Amazon VP's discuss Working Backwards and several other key ideas to what it means to be "Amazonian". They believe these concepts are a big part of Amazon's success. They cover everything from hiring practices, how they conduct meetings, and more.

This was a very interesting read. I have worked at enterprise software companies where we have done things much differently than what is described in this book. It was cool to get a peek inside of Amazon and how they operate. Amazon may often be bashed for being a monopoly and crushing small business, but this book did help show how they were able to achieve such dominance.

I recommend this book to anyone who works in hi-tech or is interested in the hi-tech market as an outside observer.