YouSaid · the spoken record

Ethan Evans

lines on the record: 70
first: 2024-01-14
most recent: 2024-01-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I do. You know, it's both like a highlight and a low light. So I had been at Amazon about six years. I had become a director and I was responsible for launching Amazon's app store. And so we were building an Android-based app store to go on Google phones and eventually on the Kindle tablets. And we got to launch day. And at that time, Jeff used to write a letter introducing new products. He would write a letter that said, dear customers, today Amazon's proud to launch blah, blah, blah, and it's got these great features. And I hope you really enjoy it. Thanks, Jeff. And we would take down all the sales stuff on www.amazon.com and that letter would fill the whole screen. And so he had written a Jeff letter. And this Jeff letter emphasized a particular feature.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, yeah, you know, show the person full-time dedication. So unless you really don't have any choice, don't take an interview from a car. Don't have your camera off. You know, eye contact is still a real thing. Body language is still a real thing. Gestures like I'm making now with my hands. They're part of your presentation. And so be fully present and try to project through the camera a little bit of I'm excited to be a part of this and I appreciate the opportunity. You know, I often tell people the best way to prep for an interview might be a good night's sleep and a pot of coffee that being fully engaged and energetic is a huge lever.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They have done, but not why it mattered. They don't talk about the impact. See, a leader is not hiring someone to just do work. They're hiring someone because they have a problem or a need. And so if you can show them, look, here's the things I've done that have made a difference. Here's the things I've done that have helped my past employers where I've had an impact. So I didn't just do work. That makes you a worker. Someone who has an impact is more of a leader. And leader doesn't need to mean people manager. I have done something that solved the big problem, and here's how it changed the company or customer outlook. That's what I'm looking for in an interview is, are you bringing me an understanding of the business that shows you contributed to the business or are you just telling me how hard you worked?”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a lot of evidence that suggests that the number one and two factors in any interview are appearance and enthusiasm. And it doesn't mean you have to be beautiful, but show up somewhere looking like you're interested in the job, not in your pajamas. And most importantly, be enthusiastic. People want to work with people that want to work with them. So if you seem very judgmental of the company and like you have to sell me on it, you're going to turn them off. I look at every interview of whether or not I really want this job. I might have decided I don't want the job. I still want the offer. And so I come to any interview I do, leaned in and talking about how excited I am to be a part of this opportunity and what I know about the company. Beyond those cosmetics, the biggest thing I see particularly at higher levels is people talk about what”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And of course, Jeff's goal, which you probably heard him say, was to make Prime a no-brainer to where you would be irresponsible really not to be a member.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With the idea of Jeff saying that invention is really a lot of the incremental and optimization, I completely agree with that, that to invent well, you need a base idea, but then there's so much of the work is making that idea real. And again, prime is a great example of this. The Amazon Prime program was a great example of, okay, we want fast-free shipping. We want this program. That was a one-time idea that they did build, but now Prime has expanded. First, it was two day in the US, then one day in the US. Now it's same day in the US, but also they added Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming. There's actually something like 205 things you get free with Prime. Most people have no idea because you get free photo storage and this ongoing list. And all of that is that incremental optimization to make it better, better, better, better.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's part of the process put in dedicated time. The interesting thing I would say is you don't need that much time. Two hours is great, but you only need two hours once a month. People think invention takes all this time. The thing is, once you have one good idea, it often takes years to express that. So you had the idea to have a newsletter. I know some of the history of your newsletter. You've been working on the expression of that idea for years now. Jeff and Amazon had ideas like Let's have prime shipping. Well, prime is still getting better and still being worked on. It's a 20-some year old idea. You know, the Kindle, a decades old idea now still getting better. So the point here is you don't need very many good ideas to be seen as tremendously inventive. Like Elon Musk, Tesla, he can kind of like dust off his hands and be like, I am now, you know, an editor.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, there's no reason when you want to return something as opposed to taking it to the UPS store or whatever, you just put it on your porch and then on your phone, on your app, you know, maybe you take a picture of it so that the drone can recognize the box or you put it in a designated spot and you push a button and the drone takes your return away. Like, yes, there's no reason.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the way I came up with this idea is one day I was thinking about drones and delivery, but I loved military history. And so I was thinking also about an aircraft carrier. And I was thinking like, is there a way to have an aircraft carrier for drones? And from that, it was very quick for the light bulb to go on and say, well, what about a truck? And, you know, so I have this patent and we haven't seen this become reality yet. You know, I'm waiting for my idea to become part of Amazon's drone delivery system. But I think ultimately it will.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Straightforward way to invent is not to somehow come up with something completely new, but instead to put together two things that exist. And so my example of this, I have a patent I talk about a lot for a drone delivery for Amazon, but the drone doesn't fly from the warehouse. Instead, a truck with no top drives slowly around the neighborhood and the drones go back and forth from the truck as opposed to the driver stopping at every house. You can have four or six drones hitting everything in the neighborhood.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And to invent systematically, We have the problem that neither of us, as far as I know, is a biologist, a doctor. You know, we don't have the right background. We don't know what we're doing. So we would just be fumbling around, I guess, with a bathtub full of chemicals, hoping. It's probably not going to work out that well. So you have to be something of a knowledgeable expert. But then the second thing people don't do is they don't spend dedicated time actually thinking. They feel like, oh, invention is just going to come to me. When I want to invent, I get away from all my devices. I go in a room with the problem I have and I force myself actually concentrate on what do I know and how can I invent. And the most”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wishes that he had called the book The Invention Machine. Because what Jeff was trying to do with Amazon was create the most inventive company, the company that would systematically outinvent others. And so while working backwards is a great title, Bill and Jeff think they should have called it the invention machine. When I joined Amazon, I did not think of myself as an inventor, but I saw that we had these leadership principles think big and invent and simplify that pushed on that. And I said, I'm in trouble. I don't know how to do this. And I sat down and thought about that. Like, what am I going to do? It seems like that's required. And I figured out how to become systematically inventive. So I now hold over 70 patents as one benchmark of inventiveness. And they were all created during my 15 years at Amazon. And the way I did that, inventiveness actually isn't that hard. I teach about this.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll say a couple things about that. First, I know you talked to my old boss, Bill Carr. We're working backwards. What I don't know is if he shared with you that after he published it, he actually realized there was a better title.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they'll be looking, you know, I was remind people as a leader, I want the best people under me I can have. It's not that I don't wish to promote you. If you think about my job, this helps people, right? I have selfish motivation to promote you. A lot of people think like, oh, the boss of the holding me down. Well, maybe some bosses are, but why wouldn't I want stronger, more capable direct reports? Why wouldn't I want people under me who can do more of my job? Frankly, that's the only way I can do less of my job.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Obviously, she must be one of those people because she still has her job and has more people and more to do. And unfortunately, her peers are shopping for new employment. So be that person. And that's where the magic loop comes in. Be that person.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“99% and the 1% isn't as hard then. So you start showing those next level trades. And as I describe it most succinctly, how do you make yourself the person who will be chosen out of the eight? And you can be chosen. There are several ways to move up. Your boss can leave or be let go. They can be promoted to another role. But another way is I have several, I coach now, and I have several clients recently. I was just talking to a client yesterday. Her two peers were let go. They were all the same level. Her two peers were let go and she was given their teams. And, you know, she expressed that her boss had been told you have too many, you have too many senior managers for the size of your organization. We need to do some change in the organization. Clean house and put all your people under the folks who have potential.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would be honest with people and say some patience is required at this level there is some notion of do we need a director, do we need a vice president? Do we have a challenge at that level that needs that person? And so promotions at this level, I often teach have two components. The first component is can I eat and do that job? Am I qualified? Do I have the skills? But the second piece is do we have such a job that needs that. However, there is a lot you can do. A lot is in your control. And what is in your control is to start practicing those next level skills, start working with your leadership on where can I take on a strategic project? How can I become more of an inventor? I teach some about how to sort of systematically be invented. It's not pure magic. You know, Edison said it's, what, one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration. You can learn this.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I often reference the book by Marshall Goldsmith. What got you here won't get you there, not only because it's a great book classically on this problem, but because the title tells the story all the great traits that got you to this one level kind of won't get you to the next level where you're more expected to be thinking in strategic terms, thinking longer term.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Stock The difference between a senior manager and a director is kind of how you lead and the work you're doing. And you can get as far as senior manager by being really strong in your function and being really good at getting things done. As a director, it becomes much more, and as a VPA beyond that, it becomes much more about influence, coordination with others, and letting go of sort of being in all the details yourself. And so senior managers really have to change some behavior.”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so it's common to get stuck there. And there are a few reasons for it. First, there are a lot of senior managers. If you think of your average director, they may have six to eight reports. How many more directors are needed? So there's a choke point. Second, that choke point is worse in the current economy. And in the past, maybe a lot of companies, Amazon, Google, Apple, et cetera, were growing very rapidly. And so it wasn't just you were waiting for some other director to leave. The teams were getting bigger. I experienced this at Amazon where over a nine-year period, I went from managing six people to 800. And so I went from a senior manager all the way to a vice president. And I describe I was, in some sense, just riding the elevator. Like the elevator was going up. And as long as I managed to stay on it, I was going to arrive at vice president. But the other thing that causes people to get...”
2024-01-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source