Meir's Monthly Learning Article

This month I want to highlight a post, Why I left Google to join Grab by Steve Yegge (yes, that Steve Yegge). Steve starts the post by discussing why he is leaving Google, listing four main reasons which are, in Amazon cultural language, Day 2 behaviors: conservative decisions, politics, arrogance, and a loss of customer focus. These are natural behaviors that companies exhibit as they grow and become successful. I found this post to be a refreshing reminder of why we focus so heavily on the customer, and why we strive to constantly innovate and push boundaries. While large companies can find success through many paths, at Amazon we work to avoid these behaviors by reminding ourselves that it is always Day 1. 

https://steve-yegge.medium.com/why-i-left-google-to-join-grab-86dfffc0be84

“Google has become 100% competitor-focused rather than customer focused. They’ve made a weak attempt to pivot from this, with their new internal slogan ‘Focus on the user and all else will follow.’ But unfortunately it’s just lip service…It takes real effort to set aside time regularly for every employee to interact with your customers. Instead they play the dangerous but easier game of using competitor activity as a proxy for what customers really need.”