TAB

1 STAR Format

2 LP's Explained

3 Amazon’s Leadership Principles Worksheet

 Overview
Situation Task Action Result

Understanding Amazon's Leadership Principles (LP's) is critical to understanding how to best respond to them in an interview
see a breakdown/explaination along with several examples of questions you may be asked to showcase a time in your experie
demonstrated that LP.

14 of Amazon's Leadership Principles (LP), which includes the definition of each LP + section for noting potential experiences
sections for breaking down each element of the S.T.A.R. method, a section for all of the "extra details" to guide your answer
questions.
 Understanding the STAR Format STAR

Situation

Our interviews are rooted in behavioral-based

questions which ask about past situations or Task
challenges you’ve faced and how you handled
them, using Leadership Principles to guide the
discussion. The STAR method is a structured
manner of responding to a behavioral-based
interview question by discussing the specific
situation, task, action, and result of what Action
you're describing.

Result

Here are some examples of beha

Tell me about a time when you were faced with a problem that had a number of possible solutions. What was the problem an

When did you take a risk, make a mistake, or fail? How did you respond, and how did you grow from that experience?

Describe a time you took the lead on a project.

What did you do when you needed to motivate a group of individuals or promote collaboration on a particular project?

How have you leveraged data to develop a strategy?

 Explanation

Describe the situation that you were in, or the task that you needed to accomplish. Give enough detail for the interviewer to
complexities of the situation. This example can be from a previous job, school project, volunteer activity, or any releva

What goal were you working toward?

Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail, and keep the focus on you. What
you take? What was your particular contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe what the team or group did when talking
Let us know what you actually did. Use the word “I,” not “we,” when describing actions.

Describe the outcome of your actions and don’t be shy about taking credit for your behavior. What happened? How did the e
did you accomplish? What did you learn? Provide examples using metrics or data if applicable.

Here are some examples of behavioral-based questions:

ssible solutions. What was the problem and how did you determine the course of action? What was the outcome of that choice?

d you grow from that experience?

llaboration on a particular project?

Understanding Amazon's
Leadership Principle
Leadership Principles

Customer Obsession

Insists on Highest
Standards

Delivers Results

Are Right A Lot

Bias for Action

Invent and Simplify

Ownership

Dive Deep

Learn and be Curious

Disagree and Commit

 Disagree and Commit

Have Backbone; Disagree

& Commit

Earn Trust

Hire & Develop The Best

Think Big

Learn & Be Curious

 Explanation

Start with the customer and work backwards—leaders obsess

over customers

Have relentlessly high standards and continuously raise the

bar/drive others to do the same

Focus on key inputs and deliver with high quality in a timely

fashion

Strong judgment and good instincts

Speed is crucial at Amazon—value calculated risk taking

Expect and require innovation from yourself and those around

you—always find ways to simplify

Think long term and don’t sacrifice value for short-term results—
there is no such thing as “not my job”

Stay connected to details, audit frequently, and question when

metrics differ

Always seeking improvement—curious about new possibilities

and love to explore them

Obligation to respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree,

then fully committing
Obligation to respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree,
then fully committing

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when

they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or
exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do
not compromise for the sake of social cohesion

Listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully

Raise the performance bar with every hire & promotion.

Recognize talent, and willingness to move them throughout the
organization

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and

communicate a bold directions that inspires results

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve

themselves
 Example

 A time you used customer feedback to drive improvement

 Most difficult customer interaction
 A time where you had to balance the needs of the customer vs. the business

 A time you were unsatisfied with the status quo. How would you change it?
 Describe the most significant improvement project you’ve lead
 How do you seek out feedback on performance?

 A time you were driving toward a goal and realized more than half way in that it may not be the bes
 A goal you set that took a long time to achieve/are still working towards
 A time you delivered a project under a tight deadline

 A time you made a difficult decision and how you knew it was the right decision.
 A time you made a decision without data
 A time you made a bad decision and how you learned from it

 A time where you’ve taken a calculated risk where speed was crucial
 A time you made an important decision without consulting your manager
 A time where you were able to remove serious roadblocks preventing progress

 The most innovative thing you’ve done and why you think it’s innovative
 A time where you solved a complex problem with a simple solution
 A creative idea you had that ended up being difficult to implement

 A time you took on something significant outside your responsibility

 A time you made a decision to sacrifice short term gain for a longer term goal
 A time you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help

 A time you were trying to understand a problem on your team and had to go down several layers to
 A time you linked two or more problems together an identified an underlying issue
 A specific metric you have used to identify a need for a change in your department

 A time you realized you needed to have a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job we
 A time you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding
 A time you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem

 A time you strongly disagreed with your manager

 A time you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers/leaders
 A time you decided to go along with the group decision even if you disagreed

 A time when you strongly disagreed with your manager on something you deemed very important t
 A time when you submitted a good idea to your manager and he/she did not take action

 A time you significantly contributed to improving morale and productivity on your team
 3 things you’re working on to improve overall effectiveness
 A time you received tough or critical feedback

 How you help your team members develop their careers

 A time when you provided feedback to develop & leverage the strengths of someone on your team.

 A time of a radical approach you proposed to solve a big problem

 A time when you took a big risk and it failed

 The coolest thing you have learned on your own that has helped you better perform your job
 A time when you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding
 Amazon’s Leadership Principles
Worksheet

Leadership
Principle Definition

Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They

work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although
Customer Obsession leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over
customers.

Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice
long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of
Ownership the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never
say “that’s not my job.”

Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from

their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are
externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and
Invent and Simplify are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things,
we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of
time.
 Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good
Are Right, A Lot instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to
disconfirm their beliefs.

Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and

promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly
Hire and Develop the move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop
Best leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We
work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for
development like career choice.

Leaders have relentlessly high standards—many people may

think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are
Insist on the Highest continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver
Standards high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure
that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems
are fixed so they stay fixed.

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and

communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think
Think Big differently and look around corners for ways to serve
customers.

Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are

Bias for Action reversible and do not need extensive study. We value
calculated risk taking.
 Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed
resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no
Frugality extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed
expense.

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve

Learn and Be Curious themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act
to explore them.

Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others

respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so
Earn Trust is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or
their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark
themselves and their teams against the best.

Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details,

Dive Deep audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and
anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions

when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or
Have Backbone; exhausting.
Disagree and Commit Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not
compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision
is determined, they commit wholly.
 Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver
Deliver Results them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite
setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.
p Principles
t

Ideas/Experiences (as
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Principle, jot down what comes to
mind. We'll break down into the STAR
method next)

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POINT A: Story telling… this is where you set-the-stage. Put the interviewer in your
shoes so they want to follow along for the rest of the story.

HOOK THEM!

STAR Me
Situation / Task (set the stage) 1-2 minutes

SITUATION Describe the situation that you were in, or the task that you needed to
accomplish. Give enough detail for the interviewer to understand the complexities
of the situation. This example can be from a previous job, school project, volunteer
activity, or any relevant event.

TASK What goal were you working toward?

Company:

Situation:

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 GETTING FROM POINT A TO POINT B: Now, let's give them the details. What happened?
What did YOU do? How did you address the problem/task/challenge at-hand?

Details & DATA!

STAR Method:
Actions (give the details; what did YOU do to address it?) 5-6 minutes

ACTION Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount
of detail, and keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take? What was your
particular contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe what the team or group did when
talking about a project.

Let us know what YOU actually did. Use the word "I," not “we,” when describing actions.

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POINT B: Wrap it up, and put a pretty bow on it! Every good story has a
satisfying ending. "The End" isn't going to cut it. Avoid things like,
"completed on-time" or "under budget".

Bring it "full circle"!

Results (wrap it up; conclusion) 1-2 minutes

RESULT Describe the outcome of your actions and don’t be shy about
taking credit for your behavior. What happened? How did the event
end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?

Provide examples using metrics or data if applicable.

 The STAR Method should be concise. You want to give good details and
data, but you don't want to get too far "into the weeds". This column is for
You need to be
all the statistics, team members, data points.
DATA-DRIVEN!
Don't play all your cards. Leave room for follow-up questions
Extra details, stats, etc. 2-3 minutes if time allows

Consider what types of follow-up questions you may receive, or at least

think of all the granular details about the team, tech, strategy, business
outcome, what this project led to for the next step in your career, etc.

This doesn't have to be a well thought-out section. You just want to take
some time to jot down some additional information. Sometimes, as you
read through your full answer in the previous slides, you'll realize that you
could stand to move out some of the in-the-weeds details over to this
section so your initial response to the question is more concise.

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 Alternate Leadership Principle

PRIMARY ALTERNATE
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE Secondary Alternate
Once you have detailed an experience, you may LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE
realize that it is also a great example for another
Leadership Principle. This column is for selecting (if applicable)
(from a drop-down menu) an alternative LP that you
might use this example for in an interview setting.

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle

Alternate Leadership Principle Alternate Leadership Principle
 RECRUITER FEEDBACK
Date: ____________
optional: if you choose to send the fully- or partially-completed worksheet back to your recruiter
comments will be below.
Alternate Leadership Principle

Customer Obsession

Ownership

Invent and Simplify

Are Right, A Lot

Hire and Develop the Best

Insist on the Highest Standards

Think Big

Bias for Action

Frugality

Learn and Be Curious

Earn Trust

Dive Deep

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Deliver Results