Working Backwards (Book)

Working Backwards is the book by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar that distils Amazon’s operating practices into reusable mechanisms for product development, metrics, organisation design, hiring, and decision-making.

Key facts

• Type: Business / operating-model book
• Authors in source: Bill Carr and Colin Bryar ^[src-018]
• Core subject: Amazon’s ways of working and process innovations ^[src-018]
• Practices discussed: Working Backwards, Single-Threaded Leadership, Input and Output Metrics, Bar Raiser Hiring, Disagree and Commit, PR FAQs, two-pizza teams, and memo-based decisions ^[src-018]

What it does

In the podcast, Carr frames the book as a way for other companies to stand on Amazon’s shoulders rather than imitate Amazon’s culture wholesale. The useful lesson is that Amazon’s practices were mechanisms: structured processes that reinforced customer obsession, ownership, speed, and standards as the company scaled ^[src-018].

Carr also warns that implementing these practices is not easy. Product-development and hiring-process changes often need CEO or C-level buy-in, and even smaller pilots require commitment and discipline through the awkward first months before teams become fluent ^[src-018].

Related

• See also: Bill Carr, Amazon, Working Backwards, PR FAQ, Single-Threaded Leadership, Input and Output Metrics, Bar Raiser Hiring

Source references

• ^[src-018] Lenny’s Podcast — “Unpacking Amazon’s unique ways of working | Bill Carr (author of Working Backwards)” (2023-11-02)