Member-only story
The Anatomy of an Amazon 6-pager
A deep dive into writing detailed planning docs from one of the most successful companies in the world
The Amazon 6-pager
I worked at Amazon for five years, leaving days before receiving the coveted yellow badge. Most people don’t make it past the first year. It’s an intense work environment, and the company revolves around specific leadership principles that provide a strict framework for how you interact with your co-workers. Because of this distinct culture, Amazon is unlike any company I’ve ever seen.
Perhaps the most challenging part of working at Amazon comes down to being able to write a 6-pager. While there are several types of documents you may need to write at Amazon, such as the backward press-release or the 2-pager, your ability to write a 6-pager will directly impact your status at the table and your ability to move up in the company. If you struggle to write detailed plans for your business, this may be a useful structure to emulate.
My plan here is to walk you through the anatomy of an Amazon-style 6-page document in granular detail. I was surprised to see that the few articles out there on the process mostly get it wrong. Even stranger, there doesn’t appear to be a single real example of a 6-pager outside of Amazon. So, I’ve decided to create one from scratch and share it with you. I based it on a structure I used when I headed up Framework Partner Marketing for the Amazon Appstore.
Each group in Amazon has its way of writing 6-pagers. While they may look or read a bit differently, they all share the same structure. Also, there are different approaches based on the goal of the document. The example I am going to share is from what we call an operational plan document. These are 6-month plans that outline the current state of the business, the historical data from the last period, the goals for this period, and how you plan on achieving them. There are two of these documents that cover the year called OP-1 and OP-2. Right about now, Amazon teams would be executing their 2020 OP-2 plan and beginning to draft the 2021 OP-1 plan.
It’s rare to write a large plan like this on your own. We usually work as a team to contribute to a single OP doc. One…
