I miss many aspects that are the byproduct of this particular Amazon process. Namely:
- it’s also a very email heavy culture, yet I had zero anxiety about what might still be sitting in my inbox unread as I went to a meeting. If it was important pre-work that was required for the meeting we all did it together at the start of the meeting. There was no expectations to have caught up on context prior.
- the format was very empowering both as an author and a consumer. As an author the constraints meant you didn’t have to worry so much about the audience or the structure and instead it was a more pure focus on content. Likewise as a reader you quickly build a muscle for how to consume it rather than second guessing if there’s going to be some grand reveal or how a story is building.
- it was also nothing short of inspirational being able to observe very senior leadership coming in to a read on something. Near zero previous context about local challenges, the particular business space or problems we’re discussing, and every single time they’d gone straight in on a fundamental issue others had missed or something that seemed inconsistent across the data presented that warranted a closer look.
Agreed on every one of these points. Especially with the inspirational aspect of seeing veteraned industry leaders and principal engineers come in fresh and have questions and misunderstandings. It's given me the courage to be wrong or confused and ask questions. I've also admired a few people's ability to advocate for shared principals and express how this relates to them - especially customer obsession
Funny I literally tell people when they join my team that email is the worst way to get my attention. You have a guaranteed slice of attention from me if you schedule time. If you email me you're spinning the wheel and if what you are sending me isn't that important, I'll get to it when I can.
- it’s also a very email heavy culture, yet I had zero anxiety about what might still be sitting in my inbox unread as I went to a meeting. If it was important pre-work that was required for the meeting we all did it together at the start of the meeting. There was no expectations to have caught up on context prior. - the format was very empowering both as an author and a consumer. As an author the constraints meant you didn’t have to worry so much about the audience or the structure and instead it was a more pure focus on content. Likewise as a reader you quickly build a muscle for how to consume it rather than second guessing if there’s going to be some grand reveal or how a story is building. - it was also nothing short of inspirational being able to observe very senior leadership coming in to a read on something. Near zero previous context about local challenges, the particular business space or problems we’re discussing, and every single time they’d gone straight in on a fundamental issue others had missed or something that seemed inconsistent across the data presented that warranted a closer look.