15 ways customer obsession drives innovation at AWS

“At the end of the day, we don't do what we do because technology's cool. I mean, of course it is, but we want to solve problems that are relevant to the real world. And so getting to to work with the customer and discover what matters to them and really work backwards from that, it feels more like we're solving real problems.”

solutions architect
Atlanta, Ga.

“I think the customer obsession and working backwards from customers is something we literally start our day and end our day with. Even the other Leadership Principles like earn trust, deliver results—they're all an inference of customer obsession because when you are obsessed for your customers to deliver them the right outcomes, you build relationships on trust, you deliver outcomes, and you dive deep into what their challenges are. I feel personally that customer obsession is like the super set (of) all the Leadership Principles.“

principal solutions architect
San Francisco, Calif.

“With customer obsession, we work or we align our working methods with customers’ needs. We work backwards from customer requirements. At re:Invent, we see all these features being actually launched ... and it all started by working backwards from customers’ requests to make these features available to them.”

solutions architect
Herndon, Va.

"The technologies we’re working on are really transformational for customers, and getting to see what customers build with them is inspiring. For example, Nationwide Children’s Hospital is using services like AWS Step Functions to perform compute-intensive cancer sample analysis to better diagnose and treat children’s cancer. I love speaking with customers and hearing about the incredible products and systems they build with AWS.”

head of application integration go-to-market
London, U.K.

“There is an enormous opportunity at AWS to work with our customers to really create some very innovative solutions that help in every aspect of business that you can imagine. Before I came to AWS, I didn't realize the breadth and depth of the solutions that we have available, and I also didn't realize how big our partner network was and how our partners really help our customers to innovate and deliver those solutions. The people I work with are super intelligent, super creative—the best people you could ever work with. ... AWS is such an innovative company. We really walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to being customer-obsessed in all things we do, and I think that's really important.”

senior partner marketing manager
Kentucky

“A customer might come up with a requirement and say, ‘I want to go use this service,’ which might not be the best service. We are so customer obsessed that if it's not the right one, we call it out and say this is not the right path you should be taking. So that's where all the (Leadership) Principles of earning trust, bias for action, insist on the highest standards—they all come together as part of customer obsession.”

artificial intelligence/machine learning specialist, strategic accounts
Bellevue, Wa.

“All of our products and services start with something called a press release and FAQ (frequently asked questions). We basically are imagining what our customers are saying and feeling about the service or product, and we anticipate questions they're going to ask. All of this helps us shape the product and helps us anticipate the customer needs. It's part of our customer obsession. The bottom line is we're working backwards from our customers, and we really mean it when we say working backwards—we want to make sure we're building the right thing always. ... “I get so much fulfillment when I'm working directly with a customer and they've been stuck on something. They're so grateful. I can see their expression and their gratitude for helping them in their journey using the cloud and learning new skills. And beyond that, seeing our customers implement solutions that can make their employees' lives safer, easier, and more productive—it's just so rewarding, it's profound.“

principal prototyping architect
Houston, Texas

“The first time I read the Leadership Principles, I thought, ‘this is interesting, this is a new approach.’ And I can honestly say at least once every day, I hear one of those Leadership Principles guide our decisions in a meeting such as, ‘oh, we can't do that because it's not customer obsessed, or we need to do it this way because this is customer obsessed.' We live by those Leadership Principles—they're ingrained in the whole culture of where we work and I love it.”

solutions architect
Charlotte, N.C.

“My favorite thing to do is to help customers build the things that meet their business objectives. One of the things that I love about being here at AWS is the fact that we want to be a business partner and we want to help the customer succeed because we want to be in it for the long haul. We're not in here for short-term financial wins—we want to see them be successful and in turn we'll be successful as well. "If you just look at the stream of product announcements that come out every year at re:Invent, every single one of those is coming from customers. ... Through that, we either add new features or we develop, outright, whole new services. We're innovating more and more for our customers and helping them simplify their journey.”

area principal solutions architect
Atlanta, Ga.

“I think the single most important focus is ensuring that the things we launch meet the high expectations of our customers—it’s one of the most important (principles) that we have. We like to say that we’re customer obsessed and we work backwards from customers, and that’s true when we try to figure out what we should launch next, but it’s also true when we figure out how we should think about security. There’s never any misalignment between what customers expect of us and what we try to accomplish.”

principal security engineer
Vancouver, B.C.