Amazon Culture of Innovation

P U B L I C S E C T O R
S U M M I T
C anb er r a, AC T

© 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.P U B L I C S E C T O R
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How does Amazon Amazon?
Microservices, Culture, and Mechanisms
Matt Greensmith
Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture, AWS

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Our Mission
To be earth’s most
customer-centric company

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Where innovation begins
We start with the customer
and work backwards

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5
Amazon’s
Growth Flywheel
> Value
> Selection
> Convenience

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A look back at
development at
Amazon...
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/pixelthing/15806918992/

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Amazon.com services (Theory)

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8
Can you see the monoliths in this Amazon warehouse?

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9
Break warehouse processes into few big blocks
INBOUND
OUTBOUND

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10
Set up software teams
INBOUND
• Track products traveling to the warehouse
• Receive products
• Prepare products to be stored
• Store products in the warehouse
• Handle inbound defects
OUTBOUND
• Pick customer orders
• Prepare shipments
• Track shipments
• Report defects
• Handle outbound defects
Inbound software team Outbound software team

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11
High software coupling
Inbound software Outbound softwareShared libraries
• Teams depend on each other’s libraries and other common libraries
• “We’re blocked, as we cannot build our software until you hand us the latest version of your library.”
• Teams depend on each other’s database schema
• “We’re afraid the changes we’re making to our database schema will break your code.”

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12
Conway’s Law:
“Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will
produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”
Melvyn Conway, 1967
So, it’s not only about changing the software architecture
but also changing the way software teams are organized.
… but how?
http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html

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13
Use micro-services

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14
Replicate the Amazon warehouse
A micro-services approach will require us to break down processes way further…
INBOUND
• Track products traveling to the warehouse
• Receive products
• Prepare products to be stored
• Store products
• Handle inbound defects
OUTBOUND
• Pick customer orders
• Prepare shipments
• Track shipments
• Report defects
• Handle outbound defects
Handle outbound defectsTrack products traveling to the warehouse
Receive products Prepare products to be stored
Store products
Handle inbound defects
Pick customer orders
Prepare shipments
Report defectsTrack shipments
Smaller teams = finer-grained software = micro-services

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15
Web of micro-services
Store products in the warehouse
Pick products for customers Report defects
Track shipments
Product details

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• Single-purpose
• Connect only through
APIs
• Connect over HTTPS
• Largely “black boxes”
to each other
• “Micro-services”

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Culture of innovation

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Our culture of innovation
» Customer obsession
“Start every process with the customer and work backwards.”
» Long term thinking
“Be stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details.”
» If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.
“We are willing to go down on a bunch of dark alleys, and occasionally we find something that really works.”
» You have to be willing to be misunderstood for a long time.
“We are very comfortable being misunderstood.”

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20

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21
Learn from failures…

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22
72
Price reductions (since ‘06)
Thousands
New services and features
introduced per year
Millions of
Monthly active customers

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How do we organize for innovation?
» Mechanisms
Encoded behaviors that facilitate innovative thinking
» Architecture
Structure that supports rapid growth and change
» Culture
Customer obsession; hire builders, let them build, and support them with a belief system
» Organization
Small, empowered teams that own what they create

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24
Working Backwards
is a process
Use it to get clarity, not to document what
you’ve already decided to do.
Customer
Press
Release
FAQ
User
Manual

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The 5 Questions

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26
Working backwards workshop techniques/steps

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27
“Most companies write the software, they
get it all working, and then they throw it
over the wall to the marketing
department, saying ‘here is what we
built, go write the press release.’ That
process is the one that’s actually
backwards.”
Jeff Bezos
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, Inc.
© 2018, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.

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28
HYBRID
ARCHITECTURE
Data backups
Integrated
app
deployments
AWS
Direct
Connect
Identity
federation
Integrated
resource
management
Integrated
networking
MARKETPLACE
Business
apps
Databases
DevOps
tools
NetworkingSecurity Storage
Business
intelligence
ENTERPRISE
APPS
Virtual
desktops
Sharing and
collaboration
Corporate
email
Backup
IoT
Rules
engine
Device
shadows
Device
SDKs
Registry
Device
gateway
DEVELOPMENT & OPERATIONSMOBILE SERVICESAPP SERVICESANALYTICS
Data
warehousing
Hadoop
/spark
Streaming data
collection
Machine
learning
Elastic
search
Queuing and
notifications
Workflow
Search
Email
Transcoding
One-click app
deployment
Identity
Sync
Mobile app
testing
Push
notifications
DevOps resource
management
Application lifecycle
management
Containers
Triggers
Resource
templates
Amazon API
Gateway
Streaming data
analysis
Business
intelligence
Mobile
analytics
Single integrated
console
TECHNICAL & BUSINESS SUPPORT
Support
Professional
services
Account
management
Partner
community
Solutions
Architects
Training and
Certification
Security and
billing reports
GAMING
3D game
engine
Character
designer
Multiplayer
service
Twitch
integration
Cloud
integration
Regions
Availability
Zones
Points of
presence
INFRASTRUCTURE
CORE SERVICES
Compute
VMs, Auto-scaling, Load Balancing,
Containers, Cloud functions
Storage
Object, Blocks, File,
Archivals, Import/Export
Databases
Relational, NoSQL,
Caching, Migration
CDN
Networking
Amazon VPC,
DX, DNS
Access control
AWS Identity
and Access
Management
(IAM)
Key Management
and Storage
(AWS KMS)
Monitoring
and logs
SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
Resource and
usage auditing
Configuration
compliance
Web application
firewall
Assessment and
reporting

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29
Every one of us is a
leader on our
mission.
Have Backbone, Disagree,
and Commit

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30
Two-Pizza teams are
fast, agile, and foster
ownership and
autonomy.
Small,
decentralized
teams are
nimble
Own and
run what
you build

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31
f(I) = (mechanisms * architecture)
(culture * organization)
^
Amazon innovation equation

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32
Experiment early
and frequently.

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33
Is it a one-way or
a two-way door?

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34
“We had three big ideas at
Amazon that we have stuck with
for 20+ years, and they are the
reason we are successful: put the
customer first, invent, and be
patient.”
Jeff Bezos
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon Culture of Innovation

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