Should Amazon Deliver Food? — Product Manager Mock Interview (\with Google PM)
Summary
TLDRIn this product management mock interview, the discussion revolves around whether Amazon should enter the food delivery business. The interviewee explores Amazon's strengths, including its vast logistics network and customer base, and weighs the benefits of building a new service versus acquiring an existing one. Considering regulatory challenges and market saturation, the recommendation leans towards building Amazon's own food delivery platform to leverage its existing infrastructure and potentially boost Prime membership. The conversation also contrasts Amazon's fast-paced, single-threaded approach with Google's more consensus-driven decision-making process.
Takeaways
- 🤔 Amazon is considering entering the food delivery business, with a focus on the US market due to regulatory challenges.
- 🚚 Amazon's strength lies in its established logistics and last-mile delivery network, which could be advantageous for food delivery services.
- 🏗️ The food delivery market is crowded with competitors like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub, suggesting a need for a unique approach or value proposition from Amazon.
- 🛒 Amazon's customer base is accustomed to online ordering, which could translate well to food delivery services.
- 📊 The food delivery business operates on low margins, which aligns with Amazon's experience in e-commerce, where many categories also operate on slim margins.
- 🔍 Potential risks include regulatory scrutiny due to Amazon's dominance in e-commerce and the potential for low or negative margins in food delivery.
- 🛍️ Amazon could leverage its Prime membership to incentivize food delivery service use, potentially increasing Prime subscriptions and overall customer spending.
- 📝 Amazon's culture emphasizes document writing and single-threaded ownership of projects, which could influence the approach to developing a food delivery service.
- 📈 The recommendation is to build Amazon's own food delivery service, leveraging existing infrastructure and customer base, rather than acquiring a competitor.
- 🏢 The decision-making process at Amazon involves a detailed analysis of market opportunities, company strengths, and potential risks, with a focus on strategic growth and customer acquisition.
- 🔑 Key to Amazon's approach is the potential for strategic expansion into underserved areas and the use of Amazon Business to attract restaurants to the new delivery network.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the product management mock interview?
-The main topic is whether Amazon should get into the food delivery business.
What is the initial question posed to the interviewee in the mock interview?
-The initial question is whether Amazon should enter the food delivery business, with a focus on either a global or domestic perspective.
Why does the interviewer ask about the focus being global or domestic?
-The interviewer asks about the focus to consider the different regulatory challenges Amazon might face in each scenario.
What is the MVP strategy for Amazon's entry into the food delivery business according to the interview?
-The MVP strategy is for Amazon to focus within the US due to its familiarity with the logistics and delivery network.
What role does the interviewee assume in the mock interview?
-The interviewee assumes the role of a Product Manager at Amazon, presenting to the VP of e-commerce.
What are some of the strengths of Amazon that could support its entry into the food delivery business?
-Amazon's strengths include its status as an e-commerce giant, its extensive fulfillment and last-mile delivery network, and its customer base trained in online ordering.
What are some of the potential challenges Amazon might face in the food delivery business?
-Challenges include regulatory scrutiny, competition from established players like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub, and the low-margin nature of the business.
What is the 'customer first' philosophy that Amazon is known for, and how might it apply to food delivery?
-The 'customer first' philosophy means prioritizing customer needs and experiences. In food delivery, this could translate to efficient ordering, fast delivery, and high-quality service.
What is the 'two-pizza team' model mentioned in the interview, and how does it facilitate Amazon's operations?
-The 'two-pizza team' model refers to keeping teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas, promoting agility and swift decision-making with single-threaded owners for projects.
What are the differences in work culture between Amazon and Google as discussed in the interview?
-Amazon is described as moving faster with a focus on writing and document-driven processes, while Google is characterized by a more consensus-driven approach with less emphasis on documentation.
What is the recommendation for Amazon's entry into the food delivery business based on the mock interview?
-The recommendation is for Amazon to build its own food delivery service, leveraging its existing delivery network and using it as a strategy to drive Prime memberships.
What is the potential risk of entering a low-margin business like food delivery for Amazon?
-The risk is that if the food delivery business does not attract new Prime members or if it cannibalizes existing Prime members without increasing overall sales, it could be a financial burden on Amazon.
How does the interviewee suggest mitigating the risk of restaurant pushback for adding another ordering system?
-By strategically targeting areas underserved by food delivery services and offering incentives to restaurants, such as integration with Amazon Business for bulk orders.
What is the potential regulatory risk if Amazon decides to acquire a food delivery company?
-The risk is increased scrutiny and potential antitrust issues, especially if Amazon acquires a major player in the market, disrupting healthy competition.
What is the role of Amazon Business in attracting restaurants to Amazon's food delivery network?
-Amazon Business, the B2B platform, can offer bulk ordering services to restaurants, providing an incentive for them to join Amazon's food delivery network.
Outlines
🤔 Product Strategy for Amazon's Food Delivery Entry
The video script begins with a mock interview discussing whether Amazon should enter the food delivery business. The interviewee, Yanel, is tasked with considering Amazon's potential strategy in this market, including the choice between a global or domestic approach and the regulatory challenges that might arise, particularly in the US. The focus is set on a domestic strategy given Amazon's logistics expertise in the US. Yanel is positioned as a PM at Amazon, advising the VP of e-commerce on the strategic move into food delivery.
🔎 Analyzing Amazon's Strengths, Weaknesses, and Market Opportunities
In this paragraph, the discussion centers on analyzing Amazon's strengths, such as its e-commerce dominance and fulfillment network, which are crucial for last-mile delivery in the food delivery business. The competitive landscape is examined, noting the presence of established players like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub. The script also touches on Amazon's customer base, which is accustomed to online ordering, and the demographic synergy with food delivery customers. The food delivery business is acknowledged as a low-margin industry, which Amazon has experience with, and potential regulatory scrutiny is mentioned as a challenge.
🚀 Exploring Entry Strategies: Build or Buy?
The script moves on to consider potential strategies for Amazon's entry into food delivery. Two main options are discussed: building Amazon's own food delivery service or acquiring an existing player in the market. The build option could leverage Amazon's existing customer base and delivery infrastructure, while the buy option could face challenges with regulatory scrutiny and cultural integration. The importance of evaluating the potential for synergies with Amazon's Prime membership is highlighted, as well as the need to assess the risks and trade-offs of each strategy.
🏗️ Building Amazon's Food Delivery Service: Opportunities and Risks
This section delves into the specifics of building Amazon's own food delivery service. It discusses the potential for integrating the service with Amazon's ecosystem, including the UI, connecting with restaurants, and leveraging the existing last-mile delivery network. The risks include the low-margin nature of the business and the potential difficulty of convincing restaurants to adopt yet another ordering system. The opportunity to use the service as a means to drive Prime memberships and the possibility of using Amazon's B2B platform to attract restaurants are also considered.
🛒 Acquisition Strategy: Targeting Underserved Markets
The script explores the acquisition strategy, focusing on the potential to target underserved areas where Amazon's Prime membership and food delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash have not yet penetrated. It suggests that purchasing a competitor with a presence in rural areas could complement Amazon's existing strengths. However, the risks of regulatory challenges due to monopoly concerns are also highlighted. The discussion touches on the importance of considering the company culture and how it might mesh with Amazon's, as well as the potential benefits of leveraging Amazon's fulfillment network to expand into these areas.
⚖️ Weighing the Decision: Building vs. Buying
In this paragraph, the speaker leans towards building Amazon's own food delivery service due to the ability to leverage existing Amazon resources and the potential to strategically grow the service. The recommendation includes using the service to attract new Prime members and offering incentives to restaurants to join the network. The potential for the service to act as a loss leader to gain more Prime members is also considered, alongside the mitigation of risks associated with the low-margin business and regulatory scrutiny.
🌐 Cultural and Operational Differences Between Amazon and Google
Towards the end of the script, the conversation shifts to a comparison between Amazon and Google, focusing on their operational and cultural differences. Amazon's 'two-pizza team' model and emphasis on single-threaded ownership for speed are contrasted with Google's more consensus-driven approach. The differences in documentation practices, with Amazon's preference for detailed documents over slides, and Google's use of their own products versus Amazon's use of external tools, are also highlighted. The speaker shares insights into the decision-making processes and the pace of work at both companies.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Amazon
💡Food Delivery Business
💡Product Management
💡Regulation
💡Logistics
💡Market Penetration
💡Prime Membership
💡Two-Pizza Team Model
💡Anti-Trust Issues
💡Fulfillment Network
💡Scrutiny
💡E-Commerce Giant
Highlights
Amazon is considering entering the food delivery business within the US due to familiarity with logistics.
The potential for Amazon to leverage its existing last-mile delivery network for food delivery.
Amazon's customer base is already accustomed to online ordering, which could translate to food delivery services.
The food delivery market is crowded with competitors like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub.
The demographic overlap between Amazon's customer base and the typical food delivery customer.
The food delivery business operates on low margins, which aligns with Amazon's experience in e-commerce.
Potential regulatory scrutiny for Amazon due to its dominance in e-commerce if it enters the food delivery market.
Strategic options for Amazon include building its own food delivery service or acquiring an existing player.
The risk of Amazon's food delivery service becoming a low-margin business without driving Prime membership growth.
Challenges of onboarding restaurants already partnered with other food delivery services.
The potential for Amazon to use its B2B platform to attract restaurants to its food delivery network.
The recommendation for Amazon to build its own food delivery platform to leverage existing resources and drive Prime memberships.
The cultural differences between Amazon and Google, with Amazon favoring smaller, single-threaded teams for rapid decision-making.
Amazon's preference for document writing over presentations, unlike Google's more consensus-driven approach.
The contrast in using Google's own products internally at Google versus Amazon's use of external tools like Microsoft Office.
Insights from an ex-Amazon employee now at Google on the differences in working culture and operational speed.
Transcripts
should Amazon get into the food delivery
business
[Music]
hey everyone welcome back to another
product management mock interview today
we're going to be doing a product
strategy question and we're going to be
doing this with yanel here is the
question the product strategy question
that I would like to ask you today you
know
should Amazon get into the food delivery
business
okay
so I'm just gonna
jot that down
okay and
um
just a few clarifying questions
um
is this should I focus on
globally get involved in the food
delivery uh service or would you prefer
more of a domestic angle on this
um is there a reason why you think
uh Amazon might choose one or the other
yeah I think actually because of um the
reason I ask it is because of uh
regulation and you know with in the US
with Amazon being everywhere uh there
may be I imagine some scrutiny in this
so I guess it can you know it doesn't
completely deter them from going into it
but it would probably like I would have
to think about like the challenges
globally versus domestically what they
would face from a regulatory angle
got it okay
um let's say that Amazon is more
familiar with the logistics and how
deliveries work in the US that's
Amazon's bread and butter so for this
exercise let's say that for an MVP
Amazon's going to focus within the US
and we'd love to hear a recommendation
from you there
sure
okay and should I make an assumption
that yeah I'm a PM at Amazon and
presenting this to the VP of e-commerce
and they want to know what take should
we take what
um action should we take basically
um in moving forward in this decision
yeah so yeah so like leadership someone
from the s team wants to know whether
the delivery this food delivery business
is something that the company should
explore
sure
okay
okay I'm just gonna take
um a few uh maybe two minutes or so just
to jot down
um
a bit of the kind of uh strengths and
weaknesses of of Amazon a little bit of
like the landscape
um and a bit of like the challenges to
just set forward basically
um uh what I think would be needed to
make the right action for this so I'm
just going to jot some notes down uh for
a little bit cool okay yeah I think that
sounds good strengths weaknesses general
landscape and on uh opportunities this
sounds good yeah
okay so
a few of the things um that I jotted
down I first looked at
Amazon as a company and thought about
like the strengths the weaknesses
um of that of the company so
obviously it's an e-commerce giant it
has a fulfillment Network
um both you know for long distance as
well as the last mile for and for this
specific food delivery business
um last mile is super important
um
and then I thought also about
um
then I thought a little bit about the
competition
um within the company or within the
space Sorry I should say so ubereats
doordash
um GrubHub so it's a it's definitely a
crowded space
um within the food delivery business
then then I thought about also uh the
customers
um so I thought about Amazon customers
first and
you know Amazon customers are trained
for ordering right they know how to go
online and and make an order so
um that's an interesting thing to
basically food delivery uh customers
because they're also trained on kind of
making the orders as well so then I
thought about like the demographics and
they kind of tie in together right it's
usually like young adults to older adult
that are making these orders
um so that was like an interesting
Synergy there and then I thought about
the landscape a bit
um
and it's a lower margin business
um uh the food delivery business which
Amazon you know tends to work well
um in lower margin business because a
lot of the
um e-commerce space uh there's a
significant amount of categories that
are running on low margins or zero
margins or negative margins actually so
um so I thought that was an interesting
uh that was an interesting kind of
synergy that's there
um and then
I also thought about
um
I also thought about like the challenges
and we mentioned that earlier with one
of my uh clarifying questions
you know with Amazon in
dominating the e-commerce space and in
various different businesses from Prime
video
um to a lot of different categories and
e-commerce
um and with fulfillment as well
um I think there's definitely going to
be some scrutiny on getting into uh
another space right so I think it'll be
less scrutiny if Amazon does it on its
own but you know if they were going to
possibly make an acquisition then I
thought of like there could be some
scrutiny there uh because these these
companies are smaller so
um that I see that as potentially as a
possible thing that could be done so so
these are some of the things that I
thought about when
thinking about whether to go into the
space
um
The Next Step that I'd like to do is
just distill this a little bit and think
about
um what sort of paths that we could take
and what sort of risks would be there in
in doing each one so I'll pause there
before
um before I continue any further but
that's that's kind of my thought process
um uh right now
yeah thanks for laying out the landscape
there and before we start looking into
possible routes to get to food delivery
I'm curious like while you were looking
through the strengths and the weaknesses
and the opportunities there and the the
threats there was there anything in
particular you were looking for
yeah
um
for the opportunities I'll start with
there I was looking for synergies
between the food delivery business and
Amazon so what Amazon does well so I
alluded alluded to that a little bit of
like okay the customers are going to be
similar so there's a it's probably a
similar customer base if you're most
likely ordering
um on a food delivery service you're
probably or could be an Amazon uh Prime
customer not all probably we'd have to
do that analysis but I imagine I'll make
the assumption that there's probably
some synergies there
um and then
and then the opportunity there if they
weren't
a Prime member customer
I thought you know Amazon the biggest
thing that they try to drive that whole
customer flywheel is getting more people
to buy more services right and through
the Prime Membership if they're able to
get someone to become a Prime member
then it's an interesting opportunity
like if food delivery uh service
customers can be converted into Prime
customers so that's where I was thinking
of like the opportunities there and yeah
and as I mentioned
the strengths that I thought is because
it's an e-commerce you know obviously
the e-commerce Giant and dominant and uh
fulfillment Network as well and shipping
um I thought that could play well into
giving some more efficiencies to the
food delivery business
um so I thought there could be
um an ability there for Amazon to use
this expertise in uh fulfillment to
basically apply to the food delivery
service
um and then I think the
maybe the
the kind of threat or maybe not so much
threat but like a risk is like it is
another low margin business
um which
you know it's it's debatable whether you
want to go into a low margin business
again
um and then I think like
I don't see I didn't see any like threat
from an outside company uh but I mean
the food delivery services for them to
kind of grow past the last mile it's a
big challenge for them to to go outside
of like that Niche so so I didn't see
any major like threats for for Amazon
and like any of the competition that's
working on this
um but yeah that was a little bit of uh
my thought process as I went through
kind of the company the competition the
customers uh the climate or landscape
and like the challenges that um that are
there for them I see so you're looking
at where food delivery might fit into
the Amazon flywheel and you were
thinking just playing a little bit of
Adele's Advocate right like why Amazon
shouldn't get into the business
um so you've laid out this landscape and
it sounds like you you might have some
scenarios in mind right so
um let's let's move there I would love
to hear what some of these scenarios
might be for Amazon to get into food
delivery if that's the recommendation
you're making
sure
sure I'm just going to take out uh take
some time just to lay out these options
and
also think about the risks and
trade-offs that would be made in each of
these options perfect and I would also
love to know what sort of criteria is
needed in order for for us to be
eligible for each one of these scenarios
sure
meaning uh just to clarify like what um
what criteria I would look at for us to
move forward with one of these uh
options yeah so for example yeah exactly
like what are the requirements for us to
choose scenario a or over scenario B
like what has to be
um present
sure
so
okay I think I I split it up basically
into two options here that I thought
about
um and basically those two options are
either build our own service like
um food delivery service or two buy a
competitor that's in the food delivery
service as two options that we could
consider and each of them has their uh
pros and cons and
when I lay these two options out
starting with the build our own food
delivery service
I think the UI we basically add on
another category of like food delivery
which I think is could be pretty easy
for Amazon it's not it's not a huge
um
upfront cost to
um
in the grand scheme of things to
basically add on a new category of of
restaurants that you could order from
for the customer uh I think the
challenge would be more of connecting
the restaurants to the Amazon service
right so uh plugging in uh the Amazon
let's say ordering system to restaurants
around the country so I think that will
be a bit more of a require more of a
deployment by the Amazon team to to
reach the right restaurants and then the
delivery
I think they're
um
there could be there could be an ability
to kind of Leverage the existing Last
Mile Network that's there and I mean
typically this is contracted out to
delivery companies and you know this
could be an additional kind of um
Service uh that's provided for the
delivery company that's contracted out
and at times you know Amazon does have
its own Fleet as well so I think it's a
combo of thinking about what's the best
way to move forward with that
um
and then on the buy option
I think the tricky thing let me pause
here for a second um so it sounds like
it sounds like for the build option
um we'll have full control over the
experience we'll be able to give the
customer like a very delightful
experience there
um there's a chance there's a chance we
might be able to tap into our own
in-house Fleet of drivers right so maybe
that will help improve our margins but
we also have a rich
um like source of third-party
contractors that we've historically also
worked with so that's also another
option
um
and I think what I would add to is um I
think the interesting piece here is
what I mentioned uh alluded to a little
bit before of like Prime members now you
know you could join you could be an
Amazon customer and not be a Prime
member and
um
so I think what this could help Drive is
maybe thinking about how Prime can be
a distinguishing factor for using this
food delivery service right if you say
Hey you get further
discounts on like shipping than
um this could be an interesting kind of
um
way to get more Prime members because
Prime members typically are buying more
um items within the e-commerce catalog
so so I think that's an interesting I
think that that could work for the build
and you know there's kind of a different
way as well in the in the buy option as
well
I see yeah I I can definitely see how
Prime subscriptions are very important
especially I mean just as a subscription
right this is recurring revenue and the
Amazon's gonna get and there's there's
studies done that show that people who
have Prime memberships do spend more so
that also impacts the bottom line for
Amazon
um and yeah like uber doordash all these
other food delivery apps they also have
subscriptions where you can get like
free delivery or some stuff like that so
um definitely gels well with the flight
with Amazon's building
um what are the risks that
um are present if Amazon were to
in-house build their own food delivery
Network
so
I thought about this and
with it being
a low margin business and
I think what we would have to kind of
see
if
if we build all of this out and
um
as I mentioned before when you know this
would be something of like some analysis
we would need to do
um
if we build this out and we find that
like okay everyone that's ordering is
already a Prime member like there is no
net benefit of like getting these
customers onto Prime and it's a low
margin business or it could be even like
uh
um
a negative margin business here like
then I could see that as a risk of just
launching
you know another it's basically another
low margin category right so and if all
those customers are already Prime
members like it's not pushing the needle
on that flywheel that we want to pursue
right so so I think this could be
um this could be a risk of just kind of
spending spending money on a business
that like we have already acquired those
customers as Prime members
um so I see that as potentially a risk I
could also see a risk of
restaurants
you know they're already plugged into a
lot of these as well right like you go
to any restaurant and you'd see like
GrubHub you'd see doordash you'd see
ubereats like all these restaurants are
already inundated with a lot of like
ordering systems that they have to work
with so to kind of go in and ask a
restaurant hey can you put a a fourth or
fifth ordering system in
I could see pushback on that where you
may not get like the restaurants that
you need right if like you know the most
popular restaurants already are plugged
in and if you as a customer can't find
that restaurant working with Amazon then
I could see that as a fail like if you
don't get the the big population of
restaurants to use this then I could see
that as a big
um a big fail in this service so those
are the two that come to mind actually
yeah it's interesting and there's
probably ways that we can mitigate this
and we can probably talk about this
later on but one um just just for the
sake of time just wanted to call out
just as a maybe brainstorming partner
one could be finding just underserved
areas in the US where there aren't many
Prime members and also Uber and doordash
haven't explicitly penetrated yet
um and maybe maybe like those are places
where even if this is a low margin
business just the fact that Amazon has
um allowed food delivery there or or is
dry food delivery there that might be a
good place for Amazon to enter and also
just even if Amazon is losing a little
bit of money here as a low margin
business maybe this is just a loss
leader for us to get more Prime members
but I I'd love to move on and hear your
other routes which is I think you
mentioned buying buying another service
right
yeah
actually like the point that you just
hit on of like um of areas that haven't
been penetrated so
you know knowing a little bit of the
space of like ubereats doordash GrubHub
I believe you know they've also tackled
different regions within the United
States and I thought about in a similar
angle it's like okay well if you
purchase one of um
these competitors and you picked a
location that Amazon does not have
strong Prime members uh in and that's
typically more in like the rural areas
outside the cities and then when I think
about you know some of these competitors
I believe like ubereats Postmates they
were more in like a city concentration
and I believe either doordash or GrubHub
we'd have to look at exactly which one
but I believe they had more of outside
some of the big cities yeah which I
think could play yeah the Prime
Membership angle yeah I think Uber
started out in in cities like New York
City or downtown areas and I think
doordash was the one that started off in
suburbs and I if I walk up correctly I
think ubereats started off with large
chain restaurants and doordash started
off with like Mom and Pop sort of like
small businesses in the suburbs
um so so what you're proposing here is
expanding into rural underserved areas
where doordash and Uber haven't
penetrated yet in the U.S
and perhaps leveraging our existing
Fleet of drivers perhaps or or are you
thinking of other ways to
um sort of bring in Amazon's strengths
when we do buy another service in an
underserved area
yeah I think that one um
that one we'd leverage we'd want to
leverage the Amazon uh fulfillment
Network to basically and delivery
service basically to go to those
rural areas to basically
um
to basically get yeah more customers
that wouldn't necessarily order from
Amazon uh from before and but now you
know this service is available to them
and if they join as a Prime member they
can maybe have a reduction in like you
know typically as a Prime member you
don't get charged for uh delivery
service so so I think that could then
spark away for getting
getting those customers
to order on Amazon and then introducing
them to
um different deals and different
categories that they could then shop
from so so I thought yeah like if they
targeted let's say doordash as we said
is maybe more concentrated outside the
um the city locations then that could be
an interesting play for them I think you
know um
anytime you're making a purchase you
always have to think about the culture
of the firm as well
um so Amazon has like a unique culture
that needs to mesh well with the
um with the company that they're buying
I think overall my sense is that a lot
of these companies they do run in a
scrappy way and Amazon is kind of known
to be frugal and
um they kind of do more with less so I
don't see that as a major
um
major problem but I think you know if
because there are a few of them I think
it's it's a mix of culture it's a mix of
probably more importantly of like which
area are they operating in and um that
could complement
um the non-prime members that we could
bring on I think as I mentioned the
challenge here too is uh regulation and
like maybe Monopoly issues that could
come up if like Amazon is just going in
and purchasing one of these the space
that's has healthy competition
um I could see that getting a lot of
scrutiny so I think for this one that
that I would call out as the biggest
obstacle
um so unless like
we're willing as Amazon to take on that
legal risk I would probably
um steer away from this one but if we
were to kind of go ahead but I guess
there's there's ways to mitigate it as
well if you purchase like you know the
number two or number three uh operator
in the space will probably get less
scrutiny
um so I think there there's ways to
mitigate that but it's definitely
something that needs to be considered
when making uh making this choice so so
it sounds like like because of these
Anti-Trust issues you're leaning more
towards building is that right
yeah I'm leaning more towards building I
guess yeah I'm leaning more towards
building because I think we could
leverage a lot of what we already have
at Amazon
um and it's a category that we can
we can easily put in in the existing
ecosystem and build out over time uh so
it doesn't have to be like something
that
um
you know it's going to take time to
connect with
um with the with the restaurants but I
think there could be ways of making it
you know with the margins so thin maybe
it'll be more appealing to work to go to
restaurants and say because Amazon is
capable of withstanding these low
margins versus a standalone food
delivery service I think they could
actually
they could actually get more restaurants
if they share more of the margins with
the restaurants right
um and then we could strategically we
could strategically target areas that we
know may not be uh an area where Prime
members are and this could be a foot in
you know the door to get some of those
food delivery customers to convert into
Prime so I would lean towards
um building our own service and
growing it out slowly with some of the
things I mentioned of
um it'll probably be a loss business but
it could convert a lot of new
um a lot of new customers to Prime
members and then I think what's
interesting because Amazon is so big in
the e-commerce space like you know if
you join up if you're a restaurant and
you join up as
um a restaurant that will use our
ordering system like there's also Amazon
business that's the B2B platform that
Amazon has and that basically allows
places like restaurants or businesses to
order things in bulk and you know like
so Amazon can basically attract
restaurants and that was one of the
risks that I called out but they're able
they can be able to attract restaurants
by providing different incentives that
uh would have them join the network
cool so just to summarize what I'm
hearing here
um you're recommending that Amazon does
get into the food delivery business
um you're recommending that Amazon
builds their own platform and I think
this is mainly for three reasons one is
that we can find we can use this as a
way to offer customers free delivery if
they have a Prime membership and we can
use this as a way to drive Prime
memberships like overall and it's been
shown that customers who have prime
prime memberships do purchase more on
Amazon overall I think the second reason
was that we already have a healthy
network of fulfillment drivers who whom
we can leverage to deliver the food and
food delivery basically is a three-sided
network uh marketplace right you have
old people ordering food the restaurants
and also people delivering food so we've
already taken care of one side of the
marketplace by by leveraging our our
drivers and then it sounds like what you
just mentioned the um the supply side of
the marketplace which is going to be the
businesses the restaurants
um we're going to be able to
make sure that they're successful on the
network by leveraging Amazon business or
Amazon's B2B arm so it sounds like like
these are going to be the three reasons
you're going to give the leadership team
as to
why Amazon should get into the food
delivery business is that right
yeah absolutely yeah that's uh that
would be my recommendation
um to leadership on this okay cool uh
well thanks so much
um just looking at the time here
um I do have one just quick follow-up
question uh thanks for the the awesome
mock interview I'm sure the audience
learned a lot from these this product
strategy question
and I would just love to learn
um you know taking off our interview
hats just as someone who recently
transitioned from Amazon to Google you
know two of the largest companies most
applied to product companies
um in at least here in the US and
probably all around the world
um what maybe I just pick one of the
largest differences that you've seen
um working at Amazon versus working at
Google and just talk a little bit more
about that
yeah sure
um
yeah I think the the biggest thing that
um that comes to mind
um I could probably share a few things
about uh
um the the first one that comes to mind
is
you know Amazon tries to be they try to
move fast and I think actually you could
probably make an argument that they do
move faster than Google in in uh in
certain regard and certain things
um and the way they try to do that is in
this two Pizza team model and where they
also try to they try to have single
threaded owners on projects and usually
led by
you know someone it could be someone
senior but like that kind of um that
mode of thinking drives a lot of the way
they do things and and it helps them to
move fast so it's like okay I'm the
single threaded owner for growing Prime
video and this is what I'm gonna focus
on and the two Pizza team model is
basically
hey your teams should make up
um if you brought two pizzas into the
room and you fed those two teams like so
that's the idea of like each person gets
two slices
um and you would feed the you would feed
the team so like roughly more or less
like that's the size of the teams that
you have so so that's how they try to
move fast whereas like
um basically I think
it tries to get everyone involved and
it's kind of like a it's kind of like
Community Driven almost certain like by
consensus of like this is what we should
do so it's a different approach where
you know obviously both successful
companies
um but where you find the differences
that like
if you have everyone involved and
everyone is like giving their opinion
and like things are scrutinized and all
the different teams are involved
um then it takes a little bit longer to
kind of surface up as far as like what's
the right decision to go to when we want
to move forward so so that would be like
the two the differences I see between
the two firms
um
few other things real briefly is just
like you know at Google you're going to
use a lot of the Google products and
Amazon you know they don't have a Google
workspace or you're probably going to
use Microsoft's uh work or something
external
um and yeah that's that's uh that's kind
of like uh another and one one other
thing I'll quickly share too is uh you
know Amazon actually focuses on a lot of
Doc writing right so everyone kind of
knows uh this is out in the public that
we don't really like Amazon doesn't
really do slides it's not kind of in
their nature unless like you uh are
presenting externally but typically
you're writing like six page docs four
page docs and Google is much less of a
doc driven company and more of like a
presentation and slides so so that also
gives you a sense of like how things are
done in like meeting wise and
um how you present your ideas so hope
that helps and uh the differences yeah
I've definitely heard from some other
exponent students that working at Google
things do move slowly like there's very
large community consensus driven debates
like you mentioned about even just
changing like the color of an icon or
something like that and yeah I've also
heard that at Amazon very very writing
heavy culture right like there's
meetings you'll start like a 30 minute
meeting and maybe just the first 15
minutes is just pure silence you're just
reading a dog and then the second half
of the meeting is just a discussion uh
but thanks thanks for coming on and
sharing these insights and for walking
through that product strategy mock
interview with us
um that concludes our video for the
audience watching at home good luck with
your upcoming PM interview
thanks so much for watching don't forget
to hit the like And subscribe buttons
below to let us know that this video is
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thanks for watching and good luck on
your upcoming interview
[Music]
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