Customer Obsession
Customer Obsession is the Amazon operating principle of starting with customer needs, trust, and long-term value, then working backwards into products, processes, trade-offs, and business decisions.
Key points
- In Jassy’s explanation, customer obsession is deliberately first because Amazon’s work starts with customers and works backwards from there [src-015].
- Competitors, economics, and market dynamics matter, but they are secondary inputs rather than the centre of decision-making [src-015].
- The principle becomes operational through mechanisms such as customer reviews, customer-problem framing, and Working Backwards documents before implementation begins [src-015].
- Jassy uses AWS cost optimisation during the pandemic as an example of prioritising customer survival and trust over short-term revenue maximisation [src-015].
- The principle expects broad ownership: employees at any level are expected to notice what customers need and improve the experience [src-015].
- AWS frames Working Backwards as the mechanism that converts the intention to be customer-centric into repeatable action: identify the customer, define the problem, invent, refine, then test with customers [src-017].
- Customer obsession becomes more concrete when teams choose one primary persona and one meaningful pain point rather than trying to solve for everyone at once [src-017].
Related entities
- Amazon — uses customer obsession as a central cultural and product-development principle
- Andy Jassy — explains customer obsession as the foundation for the other principles
- Amazon Web Services — teaches customer-centred working backwards to external customers