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

by Colin Bryar

company. S-Team goals are mainly input-focused metrics that measure the specific activities teams need to perform during the year that, if achieved, will yield the desired business results. In chapter six, we will discuss in more detail how Amazon develops such precise and specific metrics to ensure teams meet their business objectives. S-Team goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely (SMART). An actual S-Team goal could be as specific as “Add 500 new products in the amazon.fr Musical Instruments category (100 products in Q1, 200 in Q2…),” or “Ensure 99.99 percent of all calls to software service ‘Y’ are successfully responded to within 10 milliseconds,” or “Increase repeat advertisers from 50 percent to 75 percent by Q3 of next year.” S-Team goals are aggressive enough that Amazon only expects about three-quarters of them to be fully achieved during the year. Hitting every one of them would be a clear sign that the bar had been set too low. S-Team goals for the entire company are aggregated and their metrics are tracked with centralized tools by the finance team. Each undergoes an intensive quarterly review that calls for thorough preparation. Reviews are conducted in multihour S-Team meetings scheduled on a rolling basis over the quarter rather than all at once. At many companies, when the senior leadership meets, they tend to focus more on big-picture, high-level strategy issues than on execution. At Amazon, it’s the opposite. Amazon leaders t...