Writing a Narrative (Writing_a_Narrative.WebHome)
Contents
Introduction
We have several peculiar ways with regard to communication at Amazon. In particular, we use narratives rather than PowerPoint presentations at meetings. New Amazonians are likely to find executive meetings unusual and somewhat peculiar to Amazon. Typically, a one-hour meeting will start with the owner of the agenda topic handing out printed documents. Ensuring a clear, concise and crisp document is critical to the success of the meeting as in most cases there is no preamble or prior context provided.
Writing narratives is embedded in our culture because it has proven to be a tool that drives positive business outcomes leading to customer satisfaction and innovation. Here are some reasons why we have such a focus on writing at Amazon:
Written documentation forces you to clarify and organize your thoughts and helps avoid misinterpretation.
We prefer the emphasis of substance over style.
Slide-based presentations are linear and flow at the presenter’s velocity; written documents allow readers to read at their pace and in any order.
Questions that come after reading an entire written document are better informed than those that arise part of the way through a slide-based presentation.
Written documents are durable. They outlive their author and the moment in time they reference.
Amazon narratives typically contain two parts, the narrative itself plus an accompanying set of appendices:
Narrative: The purpose of writing a narrative is to define and describe clearly the details of a strategy, problem, solution, or initiative. From funding decisions to implementation decisions, narratives are integral to the decision-making process at Amazon. Narratives are also commonly used for business reviews and program updates.
Set of Appendices: These are documents to support the narrative. They should include data and other content that strengthens the message. An appendix should not be content that you simply couldn’t fit into the narrative. You should expect your audience to read the appendices, but there is no guarantee – the narrative should be able to stand on its own.
Guidelines for Writing a Narrative
When writing a narrative, keep in mind that some of your final audience may not have much prior context, so it’s important to edit a narrative into a clear, crisp set of documents.
Typical formats
Six-pagers. All documents at Amazon are limited to six pages of narrative with unlimited appendices. The reason is that this forces the writer to be concise and actionable with their narrative, and moves the supporting analysis to the appendix. Narratives often include the group or project tenets, and appendices may include a Press Release, FAQs, and data and other detail relating to the topic.
One-pagers. This brief narrative is effective in communicating the high-level goals, tenets, and design of a project. Writing a one-pager forces the author to be very crisp about the value of a project. A well written one-pager allows the audience to quickly understand the project, evaluate its benefits and risks, and make high-level decisions regarding it.
Purpose of the document: A concise statement of the reason for the narrative, summary recommendation, and immediate action required.
Tenets, or guiding principles, for the department, team, or project. (If you prefer, place the tenets in an appendix instead of in the main body of the document)
The details of the situation being addressed.
The recommendation for resolving the situation.
The implementation plan for the recommended solution. This typically includes the scope, schedule, staffing, and costs.
A set of appendices, such as a list of contributors, a press release, a FAQ, and supporting documents and data.
1st paragraph: The problem and recommendation summary. The background can be in an appendix. 2nd paragraph: Further explanation of the situation. 3rd paragraph: The root cause and solution. Other options considered can be in an appendix. 4th paragraph: Full recommendation and implementation plan.
Must haves
Is no more than six pages long. The author can provide as much supporting data as needed in an appendix, but there is no guarantee that anyone will read the appendices accompanying a narrative. It is not recommended to move text into an appendix that must be read for the narrative to make sense. The appendices are there for reference only.
Is formatted and readable. There is (currently) no strict rule on font size and borders but the author must ensure that this freedom is not abused. There are no extra points for fitting more words into six pages. [See Important Tips below.]
(Ideally) Starts with the tenets of the area. These remind the narrative reader of the core mission of the team or the guiding principles for the project discussed in the narrative.
Clearly states the objective or purpose in the first paragraph. Purpose statements are concise and provide the reader with a clear reason for the narrative, whether it is for decision-making, information sharing, a project update, or something else about the topic area.
Makes a recommendation early in the document. Have an upfront summary of your recommendations. Not everyone will have time to read the entire document, so help them understand your recommendation and reasoning early in the narrative.
Calls out the next steps at the end. Your final document should be the actionable long-term vision with big ideas, not a summary of what you did during the project. The recommendations should be supported by data that cover the deliverables in the short, medium, and long-term. Consider the risks and alternatives, but present your recommendations of the best path forward with a clear roadmap for next steps.
The above requirements might seem a little odd but they have helped enforce a highly effective mechanism that drives upfront thinking, clarity and precision of thought, and alignment with the thought process. In case of regular reviews of an area, it is advised that the author maintain the same high-level format for the narrative. The predictable and consistent format makes it easier to read the narrative over time.
Tips for Writing, Editing, and Formatting Narratives
Writing
Use this list to guide your writing and as a final “checklist” before presenting the narrative to your audience.
Clear purpose for the document
Data that describes the problem or current situation
Recommended solution or next steps
Data that supports the recommendation
Concise writing style, with no subjective descriptors or vague words
Visually clean, easy to read
Addresses potential concerns or questions
No longer than 6 pages, plus appendices as needed
Additional supporting data in appendices
Draft versions reviewed by others for feedback
Editing
Use these tips during your editing process. When iterating on the document, give yourself time to write, review, re-write, get feedback, re-write, review, and re-write again.
Reduce wordiness. Eliminate subjective and vague terms. Eliminate typographical or grammatical errors. Eliminate most weasel words.
Use active verbs. Eliminate most be-verbs: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been.
"All requests are gauged..." (passive voice) > "We gauge..."
"Our proposal is..." > "We propose..."
"The output of this meeting will be..." > "This meeting will produce..."
Use spell check, but don’t expect it to catch everything. Read the document aloud and read it from the bottom to the top to find errors that might otherwise be missed.
Ask a good writer to read it or to be your editor.
Assume readers will have questions; make sure the document answers them.
Provide relevant support that sets the context for the analysis, provides additional data, and gives examples. Eliminate the rest, or move to an appendix.
Do not digress with too many ancillary points or data that are not core to the purpose of the narrative.
Formatting
Take time to format the document properly to help readers focus on the content, not on the look of the paper. Ask your manager for local best practices for formatting.
Some organizations have document templates with the headers, footers and other information already set. Check with your manager for templates.
In the header: Name of document, date written
In the footer: Amazon.com Confidential, page X of Y. Only if directed by legal, add Amazon.com Privileged & Confidential, page X of Y.
Letter size paper, 1” margins, left-justified paragraph alignment, nothing smaller than 10-point font, standard 1.0 single space lines.
Print double-sided in black and white
Keep fonts and formats consistent throughout the document
Use headings and sub-headings:
Headings are bold underlined
Sub-headings are only underlined
Numbered list preferable to bulleted lists
Present numbered lists in order of importance
Use bullet points to enumerate only when necessary
Do not leave section headings and table headings stranded on the bottom of the page.
What about Tenets in a Narrative?
An aspect of our peculiar culture is using tenets, or guiding principles. Tenets can help maintain a focus on what is important to customers by explaining how we think about critical topics that may have counterintuitive questions or answers, or answers that can't be verified factually. They often embody hard-won wisdom. Tenets can force ourselves to grapple with difficult questions, and help remind ourselves to focus on the core mission of our teams.
In a context where readers may not be familiar with the space, it's common to place the tenets near the front of the document, e.g., immediately after the problem statement, or even immediately after the header. This can help readers understand some of the important questions in the space. An alternative is to place tenets in the appendix, although this risks excessively deemphasizing tenets and having them become stale over time periods that exceed the durability of the tenets.
Some additional reasons to include tenets in narratives and other documents are:
They help everyone involved to align on a vision and to make decisions.
Get people excited about what the team does to deliver value to the customer.
By repeatedly looking at tenets in narratives, they become an integral part of the thought process.
Continuous exposure to tenets through narratives may reveal opportunity for refinement.
For more information about tenets, see Tenets.
Tenets (A comprehensive elearning course on KNet)
What about an FAQ and Press Release in a Narrative?
The Working Backwards documents – FAQs and Press Releases – often accompany a narrative, but not always. Visit Working Backwards for more information about this methodology and documents.
An FAQ should be at most two pages long, and lists the questions with their answers that any reader might ask when reading the narrative. Ideally, the meeting should not require any other discussion than what is outlined in the narrative and the FAQ. In addition to the list of what “Good FAQs” do in the Working Backwards methodology, here are a few values that FAQs provide when accompanying a narrative:
Writing FAQs forces the team to anticipate important questions ahead of time. This helps with clarity and precision of thought in the narrative itself.
Good FAQs help with alignment on the decision making process related to the discussion in the main narrative. Better alignment minimizes surprises and helps with better decisions.
Good FAQs help make a narrative review meeting more efficient. Ideally, all the key questions triggered by the narrative are already answered in the FAQ, thus eliminating the need for any discussion. In most cases, the meeting can be focused on the few unanswered questions.
When writing a narrative without using the Working Backwards methodology, here are a couple of tips for writing the FAQs specifically for the narrative:
Make a list of 10 questions that a narrative reader might ask, and then answer them. Determine if those questions should be answered in the narrative, or handled verbally during a review meeting. If included in the narrative, turn them into FAQs.
While conducting narrative review meetings, capture the questions you’re asked. Decide if any of those should become FAQs in your next iteration or within the narrative’s main body.
Prioritize the FAQs in order of importance and number them.
Whom to Involve in Writing a Narrative?
In addition to your own manager and team members, collaborate with as many relevant people as possible. This will help you anticipate the needs of your audience. If you are pitching a proposal to re-design a widget, your audience will likely ask what kind of customer feedback or traffic data do you have about this widget? If you speak to someone well-versed about this subject matter, they may alert you to this need, prompting you to answer this question in your narrative. Consider having stakeholders involved and customer representatives too. A mentor could be another good source on how an Amazonian would present and argue certain points. See Conducting a Narrative Review Meeting ~ Who to invite for additional ideas on who to involve in writing and reviewing a narrative.
If multiple people have written parts of a narrative, the end result can be a disjointed document that diminishes the message and distracts your reviewers. When multiple writers have contributed to a document, take time to edit into a “single voice.”
FAQs
I emailed the doc, why hasn't anyone replied?
Your narrative will be read in the review meeting. Jeff Bezos said, “Time doesn’t come from nowhere. This way you know everyone has the time. The author gets the nice warm feeling of seeing their hard work being read.” In addition, senior leaders may receive 6-8 documents a day – even if they can read that many docs in their spare time it becomes unreasonable at that scale.
Why do leaders insist that we use 11-point font?
Many people think they’re clever by using tiny fonts and tiny margins to game the system and squeeze an eight-page document into six printed pages. Here are the problems with that:
This isn’t customer-obsessed. While you may have perfect eyesight, a significant percentage of your readers do not. And think of the folks who have probably read seven documents already today, and you show up with micro-font – do you think they’ll be more or less receptive to your ideas? And the margins – this is where readers make notes – if you cram your narrative into 1/2-inch margins you are depriving them of note space.
You’re robbing yourself (and your team) of discussion. The objective of your doc isn’t to go into a review with the answer already defined. You want to frame the problem, talk about how we should approach a solution, and lay out potential solutions. THEN you want the wisdom of the room (which collectively exceeds the smarts and experience of any single person) to discuss the topic and give you feedback.
Wait, are you serious that you’re only going to read 6 pages?
Yes (see prior question). Basically, six pages takes about 30 minutes for the room to read, leaving 30 minutes for discussion.
Why do people complain when I don’t put page numbers and “Amazon Confidential” in the footer of my documents?
It’s about attention to detail. If you can’t pay enough attention to add page numbers, how can the reader trust that you paid attention to the details about the content of your document (e.g. metrics, design, etc.)?
What does my VP mean when they say “don’t just bake me a cake”?
One common mistake is to write a narrative that presents only the final proposal, and doesn’t take their reader though the tradeoffs and tensions the team wrestled with in getting to their proposal. Often these tradeoffs are most helpful in leading to a useful discussion in the room. This advice does not, however, contradict the "lead with the solution" advice above. You need to lead with the solution so that all the tradeoffs can be viewed through that lens. If you take the reader on a journey, saving the resolution for the end, you won't get the same level of quality of insight into your decision.
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