Amazon Leadership Principle - Think Big

The Thought - “Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers”

What is “Think Big” at Amazon

“Earth’s most customer centric company” - well, that certainly sounds thinking big. It is about the approach that challenges the assumptions, perceptions, pre conceived notions and biases towards short term solutions. Once the idea is implemented, will it solve one, many or all customer’s problem. Scalability, taking calculative risks, bringing fresh perspectives are critical to thinking big behaviour.

Think Big Amazon interview questions

• Share an example when you identified an opportunity that was bigger than your initial scope, what made you decide that you should pursue it ?

• Talk about an example when you brought in a fresh perspective to an existing idea? How did you know a fresh perspective is required ?

• Can you share an example of a solution/idea that you implemented, was replicated by other teams and why ?

• Did you implement any process improvements in a current process which was already working fine. Why did you decide to do that, how did you quantify the improvement?

• Talk about a scenario where you solved a customer problem with an approach that solves multiple customer problems ? How did you assess the need and effectiveness of your solution?

Interviewers expectations from your answers on “Think Big”

• Are you someone who challenges the current processes or is happy with what is working?

• Are you someone who can think of long term scalable solutions and does not settle down with quick-fix solutions?

• Are you someone who is willing to take risks that can change the course of business/customer experience?

• Are you someone who critically evaluates ideas and have the courage to restart from level zero to solve multiple customer’s problems?

Must have in your answers on “Think Big”

• Mention about customer anecdote, how you got to know about a problem and how you decided to solve it.

• You are a person who is good with data, how you leverage it to evaluate your idea.

• You are not afraid of taking bigger bets even if you do not have a clear idea of how you going to reach the goal - understands the risk but not afraid of taking the risk.

• You are someone who always evaluates the current process carefully to find opportunities that can improve customer experience.