Speaking the Language of Stakeholders and Working Better With Product, with Sean O’Neill (ex Amazon, Tesco, GfK)

Sean has spent the past 25 years at the intersection of commerce, consumer behaviour, and data-driven feedback loops. This included working for Tesco, GfK, and two long stints with Amazon, among others. In this chat we talk about how design can better work with product, how to speak the language of our senior stakeholders, and what he's learned about hiring from interviewing over a thousand people at Amazon.Timestamps:00:00 – Intro03:54 – How does Product act differently in small vs. in big companies05:53 – Interviewing others as a Bar Raiser at Amazon10:55 – Portfolios – How do you get to the bottom of study cases?13:24 – The one question Sean likes to ask in interviews17:58 – How does a good relationship between Design and Product look like?29:58 – Challenges that Product faces when they deal with Design49:10 – Making it 'cheap' to be wrong53:23 – Why sometimes Design reports to Product56:53 – End of show questions.Connect with SeanLinkedInSelected notes from the episodeSean's 10 Product Development Principles (to create the right culture and velocity):1. Solve the right user need2. Measurable accountability to outcomes3. Release value in slices (avoid long bets)4. Put data in the hands of decision makers5. Build once, run everywhere6. Make it cheap to be wrong 7. Build it fast AND proper8. Extreme focus on top priorities9. Simplify, simplify, simplify10. Be credible