Amazon's Leadership Principles includes 'Frugality - Accomplish more with less.' Talk about a time you discovered a way to save on development costs.
There are numerous ways that Product Managers can save on development costs. As a PM for Amazon, you are expected to be frugal, efficient, and work cost-effectively. Talk to the interviewer about a time when you used creative thinking to drive down development costs or generate other savings on a project.
When you answer this 'Talk about a time...' question, it's important to remember that the interviewer is looking for a specific story-based example that highlights your behavior in challenging situations. Using the STAR interview method (Situation, Task, Action, Result), you can form a story-based response that the interviewer can follow with ease.
- Situation: Set the stage with the background information the interviewer needs to make sense of your story.
- Task: Continuing to set the stage, give the interviewer an idea of your role and responsibilities in this story.
- Action: Next, offer a detailed description of the steps you took to express your point of view with your manager.
- Result: Last, talk about the specific outcomes that resulted from your actions.
"In some instances, driving costs down by 10% or so can be a straightforward task accomplished by repurposing small design features or streamlining team tasks. However, when costs need to be driven down immediately and significantly, it requires well-thought strategic moves. I have been a Product Manager with Company XYZ for 5 years. Over this time, I have seen development costs increase up to 4X, with the cost of labor, materials, and production climbing at a steady rate. This year I decided it was time to make some significant changes and help the company generate stronger profits. After analyzing data from the previous years' projects, I saw that my biggest opportunity was in automating engineering changes. Engineering change requests were stacking up, and I knew there had to be a better way to approach these requests. After calculated research, I landed on introducing Cloud PLM software. Cloud PLM allows every team member and all of our projects' stakeholders to access product data and insights in a single view. It keeps our data up to date and ensures that everyone is on the same page with changes. Since implementing Cloud PLM, our projects are completed 35% faster and with far fewer mistakes. Because of this change, we are on track to lower product development costs by 27% over the next 12 months. Company XYZ has benefitted greatly from the keen eye I keep on development costs and project budgets, and I am eager to embody the leadership principle of frugality within the Amazon team."
