Start with the official principles
Amazon publishes 16 Leadership Principles and describes how they inform its work. Read the official wording, then choose experiences that show your judgement in action. Use the independent practice prompts below to explore your examples; the questions in your interview may differ. Aim to know the details of your examples, including what went wrong and what you learned.
A practice prompt for each principle
- Customer Obsession: When did feedback from a customer change your decision?
- Ownership: When did you take responsibility beyond your assigned task?
- Invent and Simplify: What did you make easier for others to do?
- Are Right, A Lot: When did new evidence change your mind?
- Learn and Be Curious: What did you learn and then put into practice?
- Hire and Develop the Best: How did you help someone else improve?
- Insist on the Highest Standards: When did you catch an issue before it reached the customer?
- Think Big: When did you propose a broader opportunity?
- Bias for Action: When did you act with limited information?
- Frugality: How did you make progress with limited resources?
- Earn Trust: When did you have to rebuild a working relationship?
- Dive Deep: When did the detail tell a different story from the headline?
- Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit: When did you challenge a decision and then support the outcome?
- Deliver Results: How did you deliver when the original plan stopped working?
- Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer: How did you improve the experience of people around you?
- Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility: When did you consider the wider effect of your work?
Prepare for the follow-up
- For a customer decision, explain whose problem you solved and how you understood it.
- For a disagreement, explain the evidence, your recommendation and what you did after the decision.
- For a result, explain the starting point, your contribution and the limits of the measurement.
- For a mistake, explain the correction and the habit you changed.
Try it now
Put this answer into your own words
Tell me about a time you challenged an approach.
- Choose an example from your own experience and jot down three or four reminders.
- Record your answer in one take. Listen for the main point, what you did and what happened.
- Improve the part that was hardest to follow, then say the answer again.
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