CONFLUX Conference

Solving customer issues in their own context

 I've had the good fortune and privilege to travel around the world learning about Amazon’s customers. On my last few trips to India, rather than stay at the hotel, I stayed with AirBnB. I've met real people, had real experiences and can draw inspiration from experience as well as data while solving important issues for our customers. 

MY ROLE: Conference speaker and customer advocate

I spoke at our internal design conference about what I have learned - equating real Indian living with design problems that we can solve. I gave examples of how latency can really affect expectations and perceptions. How distance is measured in time and traffic is horrible, so making address collection easier can make a significant difference to our customers, among other things.

I've gone a week without using utensils at meals. I've lived on a budget of a couple hundred dollars over nine days (total, including room and board). I've met cows on the street. I've had conversations with folks while eating standing up at the food stall. I shared these kind of experiences with the team back in Seattle to increase general customer understanding and empathy. At the end of this specific talk, numerous people came up to me and thanked me for presenting a customer view that they were previously not aware of, broadening their knowledge and giving them direction in their own international work.