This section of the website includes articles that expand on Amazon.com topics discussed during Invent Like An Owner podcast episodes. Visit the Podcast tab to explore all audio interviews.
The Story behind ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers)
During Amazon’s earliest days (1994-1995), CTO Shel Kaphan and Software Engineer Paul (then) Barton-Davis had to write all the software needed to power Amazon.com on the day it offered its website to the world to sell books (official launch date was July 16, 1995). The book catalog was online, and it needed an index (well, it needed several indexes, but that’s another story); specifically, it needed a unique key for each item in the catalog. Because the databases they were using to create the …
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Fixing Errors in the Amazon Catalog
An early task that was assigned to me at Amazon was correcting errors in the Amazon catalog. We built the catalog as a batch job, using two very large databases of books from the book distributors Baker & Taylor and Ingram. The book databases were indexed by ISBN, and were both widely distributed to bookstores, so that bookstores could order books from the distributors. They were not intended to be customer facing. Basically, as long as they were Good Enough for an employee or owner of a …
Common Amazon Acronyms
Podcast listeners have asked about the definitions of acronyms commonly used at Amazon.com (which have been mentioned during episodes), so here's a list of common acronyms. I'll add to this list after future episodes (vs trying to create an all-encompassing list). If I'm missing an acronym that we've discussed (or something really commonplace that escaped my mind), contact me. 1-Click Shopping - Amazon's 1-Click shopping button, introduced in 1997 (and patented in 1999), allowed customers to …
Other Podcasts with Amazonians
To prepare for some of my podcast interviews (see the full list of the Invent Like an Owner podcast interviews), I went and listened to other interviews that my guests have done in the past. In doing so, I discovered other podcasts with Amazonians. I thought that it would be useful to create a list of all of those podcasts, along with brief topic summaries. So with no further ado, here is the list, sorted from newest to oldest: April 20, 2021 - Jeff Wilke on the NFX podcast - Former CEO, …
Behavioral Interviewing Tips
What is behavioral interviewing? Amazon is not unique in their utilization of behavioral interviewing, but I think it's the most effective way to evaluate prospects during the hiring process. So if you're pursuing employment at Amazon, or any other employer that embraces behavioral interviewing practices, it's worth your time to hone your behavioral interviewing skills. So, what is behavioral interviewing? It is based on the premise that people are most likely to exhibit behavioral traits …