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I've written documents for Jeff, and IMO, the six-page narrative memo is a key part of Amazon's success. It's so easy to fool both yourself and your audience w
by jrauser 8y ago
I've written documents for Jeff, and IMO, the six-page narrative memo is a key part of Amazon's success. It's so easy to fool both yourself and your audience with an oral presentation or powerpoint slides. With narrative text that has to stand on its own, there is no place for poor reasoning to hide. Amazon's leadership makes better decisions than their competitors in part because they are routinely supplied with better arguments than their competitors.
"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." -Dick Guindon, via Leslie Lamport
- SatvikBeri 8y agoThis is now one of the things I screen for at any new job. At my current company, we've banned PowerPoint for any internal communication, and use text for just about everything.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI wish my company did that. Even if you write a document usually they ask for Powerpoint so after a while everything regresses to bullet points on slides.
- fermienrico 8y agoA lot of companies I have worked at use PowerPoints as the ONLY means of documentation. Presenters have slides that cram so much information that they become unstructured glob of textual-visual noise with jpegs, flow charts, long paragraphs and drawing snippets, etc. People have forgotten to write structured documents that logically layout your thoughts.
- nlawalker 8y agoSo, so many people hate reading and writing. They abhor it. Black and white text on a page looks like history class homework. You could strap them to a chair and hold their eyes open and they wouldn't be able to make it through two double-spaced pages. In my experience, one of the most common agendas for a meeting is "here is a document that the author is going to read to you."
- maxxxxx 8y agoI have told people "we don't need a meeting where you read the slides to me. Just send the doc and I will read it" :-). Didn't go over too well....
- marktangotango 8y agoReminds me of the time it was my turn to lead the weekly staff meeting. Why? Cause our manger was lazy I guess. I handed out copies of Brooks No Silver Bullet essay. Did not go over well at all.
- tomjen3 8y agoYou shouldn't just dump a document with only black text. Don't be afraid to use colors and illustrations (which are nearly always enhanced by colors).
- asark 8y agoAt least one major (like, major) management consulting firm turns basically all their communication into a PowerPoint, sooner or later (usually sooner). I gather they've found they can't consistently get C-level folks to pay attention to any other format, but it also ends up being their own internal format-of-record for almost everything. It's bananas.
- Terretta 8y agoMore than one. Basically any global consultancy targeting c-suite ‘strategy’ advisement.
- dingaling 8y agoBullet points aren't always bad. Done properly they convey the essence of the message without the baggage of conversational language. If you can understand a Powerpoint just from the graphics + bullets then it's done correctly. If it needs supplementary notes then send it back for rework.
- loganfrederick 8y agoI completely agree. I've been at jobs where I would be asked to explain a product or initiative and would go with documentation, only to be told that I "write too much" and to condense into slides. This was almost always due to managerial laziness in vetting decisions on the basis of "saving time", instead of doing the hard work of understanding a problem or opportunity as thoroughly as possible. Then, when problems arise that were highlighted or predicted in the documentation, you can't just tell people "I told you so". But getting people to understand the flimsiness of slide presentations compared to documentation can be a slog.
- seattle_spring 8y agoThere has to be a balance though. The last place I worked some guy would write literally 30-40 pages explaining a service he was going to write. No one was going to read that, nor should they. It could have been explained in 1-2 pages, easy.
- loganfrederick 8y agoAgreed, the level of "paperwork" varies depending on what you're actually trying to get done. Proposing a new product? 2-3 pages like the Amazon Press Release technique should probably be the max. Product and engineering manager scoping the implementation? Could total 10 pages, but split into 20 different tickets that go across 5 devs and a designer. Context definitely matters.
- btilly 8y agoHence the importance of the other half of Amazon's policy. Not just "written form", but "written and of easily digestible length X". You want there to be nowhere for bad reasoning to hide. Neither in the disconnection that comes naturally with slide shows, or in a forest of spurious verbiage that long writing encourages. As Dijkstra famously commented about writing, "You cannot sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. Nor will 10 blunt axes suffice."
- sib 8y agoYes, definitely. I wrote (or contributed significantly to) dozens of docs for Jeff Bezos and his senior team. It was important to understand whether you were writing a 2-pager or a 6-pager (depended on a number of factors, mostly relating to complexity of the issues involved, the size of risks, and the variances in expected outcomes.) Two examples: (1) An acquisition memo justifying a functional/technical area (and specific target company) that we wanted to be able to move into due diligence with. (2) A recommendation related to whether "Alexa" (the service) and "Echo" (the device) should have the same or different names. In case you're wondering, the former was a 2-page and the latter, a 6-pager. In each case, the recommendation that we presented was accepted, the second after much more vigorous debate than the first. Jeff was initially strongly opposed to having two different names. No one would read a 40-page document, but there were a few times when we ended up with 6-pagers that contained 20+ pages of detailed appendices. I also believe that the culture of the document is a key success factor for Amazon (but that it can't just be cargo-culted into other organizations without a lot of buy-in).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- icelancer 8y agoWe use Powerpoint internally for short discussions especially when media is relevant (we do a lot with video, so it's necessary to have some way to communicate that), but we are heavily-biased towards text as well. Printed, if at all possible.
- lifeisstillgood 8y agoIs there a way of tracking the impact of these memos at Amazon - for example a "decision log" such as "because of memo X it was decided to fit speed limiters on all delivery vans - All speed limiter costs will be under Cost Code XXX" Then you can trace costs (and presumably savings) back as a dimension through the P&L?
- pklee 8y agoI completely agree with this. In the recent past, I have been moving from ppt to writing articles. The clarity you get while you write it demonstrates how much you know. It is like thinking about a picture and then drawing it, you have to focus on a lot of details to get it right. When we think the mind doesn't focus on those
- clairity 8y agoi've always liked the challenge of, and gravitated towards, being the synthesizer on group projects, because while it meant extra work for me, it also imparted deeper understanding. you literally get smarter from having to consider disparate perspectives. this is a lesson that's always stuck with me. and it seems to uncover a gap elided in your conclusion: > "Amazon's leadership makes better decisions than their competitors in part because they are routinely supplied with better arguments than their competitors." i suspect better argument came not only from (an initial) concise writing by the narrator but the revision process incorporating other people's perspectives?
- dgzl 8y ago> "Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." -Dick Guindon, via Leslie Lamport This makes so much sense in context to Facebook and YouTube comments...
- winchling 8y agoAddendum: coding is Nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your writing is.
- busyant 8y ago> "Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." Indeed! Every so often, I have a coding question and I have an urge to ask that question on StackExchange. Before I actually post the question, I write a draft question. I usually revise my draft a few times to make it as clear as possible. About 50% of the time, the process of revising my draft makes me realize an obvious solution to my own problem that I had overlooked.
- module0000 8y agoThe internet needs more of you. Thinking about your problem and a question to solve it leads to introspection, which is sorely lacking in most StackExchange questions. Most posters just let their stream of consciousness out, post it, and curse the lack of answers.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dspillett 8y agoIf you've ever had to deal with customer problem reports, you'll know that isn't just people using SO and related sites.
- kashyapc 8y agoYeah, as someone who has to deal with bugs from systems layer to userspace, a non-trivial chunk of reports (not from customers per se) are: "crap blows up, please figure out". FWIW, some four years ago I wrote this for this "bug filing recommendations"[1] guide for the OpenStack community when triaging lots of bugs. In my experience, the most and informative and delightful bug reports I've ever come across are from Japanese customers. And obviously, I prioritize those bugs that are competently written. [1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/BugFilingRecommendations https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/BugFilingRecommendations
- jjeaff 8y ago
- primitivesuave 8y agoMy cofounder/CEO used to work for Jeff Bezos as a GM and the most valuable lesson he imparted to us is the six pager. Before a high-level meeting begins, everyone grabs a red pen and reads/annotates the six-pager for 20 minutes. The discussion that follows is between informed participants, and has more structure. It is a highly effective technique for decision making, and a practice I would certainly carry forth to whatever I work on in the future.
- Steltek 8y agoIt seems all practitioners print out all of these memos to paper. Has anyone successfully converted this tradition to a digital medium or does that invoke the spectre of PowerPoint too strongly to survive? In my daily routine, the thought of printing anything for work seems peculiar.
- vb6lives 8y agoSomeone will forget their laptop, or won't have wifi, or the power will die, or the link doesn't work or won't have the right pdf/doc reader, or will respond to that notification they just got distracting everyone with their clickity clack, etc. Making the presenter bring everything needed to have a distraction free conversation is a feature, not a bug.
- dagw 8y agoIn my daily routine, the thought of printing anything for work seems peculiar. Anything I have to read that's more than 2-3 pages always gets printed. Especially if it's non-trivial.
- reificator 8y agoNot trying to fix what isn't broken, just asking: Have you tried an ereader? I have one that's 8", has a frontlight, and runs full on Android, I use it after my no-tech nighttime threshold and during meetings. But I especially use it for any long form reading I have to do.
- donavanm 8y agoThis also works as a mechanims for two other benefits besides conveying quality information. The written narative benefits the writer as an excellent way to shape ideas in to coherent arguments and conclusions. Its useful to the team for forcing explicit consideration and decisions. Implicit or accidental effects are a much higher risk than an intentional, but suboptimal, decision.
- matwood 8y agoI constantly point to the Amazon narrative as a good thing to do. I know it helps put my thoughts in order. That quote is great, thanks for sharing.
- sandebert 8y agoI realize it's probably difficult to give a simple answer to this question, but roughly how long would it take to write such a memo?
- sib 8y agoThe magic is that the writing typically doesn't take that long. It's the digging in, researching, learning, hypothesis building, validation, etc., that may take quite a while. But that's why the documents are so powerful; once you've gone through all that (which is easier to skip, fake, or shortchange in a PowerPoint), the level of preparation and discussion is so much higher. And you likely know the answers to almost all the questions that will come up in the exec review meeting, which reduces the need for and endless series of meetings on the same topic. So, for me, writing a 2-pager usually took 1-2 hours. After 1 week - 2 months of work getting to the point that I was ready to write. ;)
- jrauser 8y agoJeff talks a lot about this in his recent letter to shareholders. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161/d456916dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518... He suggests that a great memo takes a week or more. In my experience that's roughly right, though you'll often have been mulling over the problem for weeks before you actually start writing.
- rayiner 8y agoThat’s a really interesting point (and quote). I write legal briefs for a living, and routinely an argument I thought was very compelling when I jotted down the bullet points completely falls apart when I go to write it out and am forced to actually conntect the dots.
- zwayhowder 8y agoI had an episode of cognitive dissonance while working at a Big4 consultancy and studying my MBA. I could consistently score High Distinctions (85%+) on my essays and reports at uni, but Partner's ripped my powerpoints to shreds for lacking narrative and consistency. I am only just coming to understand what they were seeing and why a long form essay would have been a much better way to get my information across. Now to convince my customers that a 6 page essay/report is much better than 60+ pages of graphs and filler.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoI would add "Teaching is nature's way of letting you know how incomplete your understanding is."
- omilu 8y agoGot any samples of great six page memos you can link to?
- forgingahead 8y agoCan you share a general template of the 6-page memo? What are the key areas to be covered that ensure heightened understanding of the topic being discussed? Also, how do you disabuse folks who get their writing skills from Creative Fiction in college, and therefore write in a style more suited for dramatic effect than succinct communication? ie, how do you force actual "memo" writing?
- sib 8y agoI would say that there is no single general template; it depends on the purpose of the specific document. I just wrote a medium post covering some do's and don'ts of these documents: https://medium.com/@sib1013/writing-docs-at-amazon-e025808616bd https://medium.com/@sib1013/writing-docs-at-amazon-e02580861... > Also, how do you disabuse folks who get their writing skills from Creative Fiction in college, and therefore write in a style more suited for dramatic effect than succinct communication? ie, how do you force actual "memo" writing? This is easier. If you are their manager, you hand them a couple of example documents that you believe to have been high-quality and effective, right when they join the team. Then, you read the first document that they write and return it to them marked up (edited) to meet your standards. They'll figure it out pretty quickly (or they won't, and then, to be honest, you've got a problem, because they'll have a hard time being successful at Amazon if they can't.)
- sandGorgon 8y agothere's not a lot of information around the best practices of such a thing. Could you talk a bit more - is it used in all meetings ? what should you NOT DO in these memo ? are they paragraph prose or bullet points ? etc
- dotmanish 8y agoYou may find some places on the web talking about this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-amazons-6-pager-brad-porter/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-amazons-6-pager-brad-p... https://www.anecdote.com/2018/05/amazons-six-page-narrative-structure/ https://www.anecdote.com/2018/05/amazons-six-page-narrative-...
- sib 8y agoReplied to your similar comment as well, but here is a Medium post that I just wrote on the topic: https://medium.com/@sib1013/writing-docs-at-amazon-e025808616bd https://medium.com/@sib1013/writing-docs-at-amazon-e02580861...
- roenxi 8y agoDoesn't, eg, Walmart have higher generally revenue and margins than Amazon, especially if AWS is ignored? It is very early in the game to declare that Amazon's leadership are making significantly better decisions than their competitors. I mean, they might be making better decisions, but they might just be making average decisions and riding the wave of technology due to having an online presence without brick-and-mortar stores to worry about.
- tomjen3 8y agoDo you have any suggestions for how to improve my written thinking? Word can (mostly) fix my grammatical errors, but I am no longer in university so I don't have the ability to have a teacher look at them.