(via The New York Times): Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace
The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.
SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working. They are told to forget the “poor habits” they learned at previous jobs, one employee recalled. When they “hit the wall” from the unrelenting pace, there is only one solution: “Climb the wall,” others reported. To be the best Amazonians they can be, they should be guided by the leadership principles, 14 rules inscribed on handy laminated cards.
(via Mind The Product): Ryan Singer's Product Development Tools
Ryan is the Product Manager for Basecamp, and joined us on stage at Mind the Product San Francisco to share some of his experiences and the tools he’s designed to stay sane in that job. The challenge for product managers is it’s not just about tackling your own to-do list but actually coming up with the to-dos for the whole team too.
(via CB Insights): 135 Startup Failure Post-Mortems
A compilation of startup failure post-mortems by founders and investors. No survivorship bias here.
And so while we have dug into the data behind startups that have died (as well as those acqui-hired) and found they usually die 20 months after raising financing and after having raised about $1.3 million, we thought it would be useful to see how startup founders and investors describe their failures.
(via First Round Capital): The Most Dangerous Leadership Traps — and the 15-Minute Daily Practice That Will Save You
Every day, Chris Holmberg tries to put himself out of business. As an executive coach for nearly two decades, he’s worked with leaders of tiny startups and multinational corporations alike. But the core of his practice remains pretty counterintuitive: There’s no solution. No secret sauce. He doesn’t claim to have magic formulas for building teams or running meetings or tripling ROI. Instead, he’s in the business of building mindsets that can handle anything.