Customers are divinely discontent
“One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static – they go up.”
Investing
Jeff Bezos's 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders, one of the letters in Day 1: The Amazon Shareholder Letters, 1997–2020.
High standards can be taught
“I believe high standards are teachable. In fact, people are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure.”
High standards are contagious
“High standards are contagious. Bring a new person onto a high standards team, and they’ll quickly adapt.”
Standards are learned one domain at a time
“I believe high standards are domain specific, and that you have to learn high standards separately in every arena of interest.”
Blind spots despite general high standards
“You can consider yourself a person of high standards in general and still have debilitating blind spots.”
Recognizing good and knowing the effort
“First, you have to be able to recognize what good looks like in [a domain]. Second, you must have realistic expectations for how hard it should be (how much work it will take) to achieve that result – the scope.”
Hidden beliefs about scope kill standards
“Unrealistic beliefs on scope – often hidden and undiscussed – kill high standards.”
Six-page memos instead of slides
“We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon. Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos.”
A real standard that resists description
“[Readers] know [a great memo] when they see it. The standard is there, and it is real, even if it’s not easily describable.”
Great memos are written and rewritten
“The great memos are written and re-written, shared with colleagues who are asked to improve the work, set aside for a couple of days, and then edited again with a fresh mind.”
Teaching scope improves results
“The key point here is that you can improve results through the simple act of teaching scope – that a great memo probably should take a week or more.”
The coach who cannot throw
“The football coach doesn’t need to be able to throw, and a film director doesn’t need to be able to act. But they both do need to recognize high standards for those things and teach realistic expectations on scope.”
People are drawn to high standards
“Perhaps a little less obvious: people are drawn to high standards – they help with recruiting and retention.”
High-standards culture protects invisible work
“More subtle: a culture of high standards is protective of all the ‘invisible’ but crucial work that goes on in every company. I’m talking about the work that no one sees.”
High standards are fun
“And finally, high standards are fun! Once you’ve tasted high standards, there’s no going back.”