Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

by Colin Bryar

Our goal as presenters is not to merely introduce an idea but to demonstrate that it’s been carefully weighed and thoroughly analyzed. Unlike a PP deck, a solid narrative can—and must—demonstrate how its many, often disparate, facts and analyses are interconnected. While an ideal PP presentation can do this, experience has shown that they rarely do in practice. A complete narrative should also anticipate the likely objections, concerns, and alternate points of view that we expect our team to deliver. Writers will be forced to anticipate smart questions, reasonable objections, even common misunderstandings—and to address them proactively in their narrative document. You simply cannot gloss over an important topic in a narrative presentation, especially when you know it’s going to be dissected by an audience full of critical thinkers. While this may seem a bit intimidating at first, it merely reflects our long-standing commitment to thinking deeply and correctly about our opportunities.