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Article starts out well and then veers off into strange and scattershot coverage of unrelated Amazon factoids. It doesn't fully cover the communication princip
by ak217 8y ago
Article starts out well and then veers off into strange and scattershot coverage of unrelated Amazon factoids.
It doesn't fully cover the communication principles of the 6-pager. The missing parts are:
- 6 pages is the upper limit; the memo can be shorter
- The format is designed to drive the meeting structure by requiring attendees to read the memo in the first 10 minutes of a meeting, followed by discussion
- You can push extra information into the appendix if needed to convince those looking for more evidence
- The memo is self-sufficient as a unit of information, unlike a Powerpoint that relies on the presenter (or a video of them) to contextualize and connect the information
The basic thrust is to bring the discipline of scientific style article writing into office communications (and avoid Powerpoint anti-patterns in the process).
- philipodonnell 8y agoI too was frustrated with this article. What is a narrative memo? Is there an outline? Examples?
- RobertoG 8y agoWe are just reading the text. Maybe the answers are in the attached Power Point.
- eyjafjallajokul 8y agoAmazon employee here - Here's an overview of how Amazon does "Working Backwards" narratives - https://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2017/08/08/how-does-amazon-stay-at-day-one/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2017/08/08/how-do...
- mwexler 8y agoThat was a good read. Thanks for pointing it out.
- jamesblonde 8y agoThe first few lines are a straight out lie! Alexa was not developed internally at Amazon - it was bought in, on the cheap - https://www.logicalclocks.com/what-is-it-with-european-data-companies/ https://www.logicalclocks.com/what-is-it-with-european-data-... .
- sib 8y ago> Alexa was not developed internally at Amazon - it was bought in, on the cheap That's a flat-out lie itself. A knowledge graph was acquired. Alexa - which, at this point, represents many thousands of years of engineering effort, was most certainly developed in-house. Source: I wrote the 2-pager recommending the acquisition of said knowledge graph company.
- jcrites 8y agoA better word would be "essay". It's simply a written document proposing and explaining some idea. The essay will be read by its reviewers quietly, so the document needs to be clear and self-sufficient in presenting that idea. The essay will be discussed verbally too, but only after the reviewers have a chance to fully read the document and ruminate over it, typically for 30 minutes or more. The verbal discussion can elaborate on points made in the essay but isn't a substitute for them. This means that the quality of the writing needs to be high, and the hope is that high-quality writing facilitates high-quality thinking and presentation of ideas.
- dom_woodman 8y ago+1 on this. Is there a good source of examples? I think it would probably help my comprehension.
- yawaramin 8y agoOut of curiosity, is it a requirement to read the memo during the meeting itself? Just wondering if it wouldn't save some time for people to have read the memo before the meeting?
- jmiserez 8y agoTheoretically yes it would save time. Practically, many people wouldn't read it ("no time") or just skim it ("got the gist of it") and having a meaningful discussion becomes impossible. The meeting then dissolves into a impromptu brainstorming session by all the people who haven't read it. A decision is made to implement one of the newly brainstormed hare-brained ideas without taking the carefully thought out arguments and counterpoints in the memo into account. In the end people congratulate each other on a "productive" meeting and the memo wanders into the trash, unread.