Thread by @ZekeAranyLucas

I can share some of my Annual Planning experience at Amazon. Keep in mind that Amazon is pretty diverse, so the details vary a lot depending on the org you are in. For example, many processes are very different between Retail, AWS, and Devices. #Amazon #AnnualPlanning #YMMV

https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1462016666003554308

It is standard practice to do an Operational Plan (OP) every year in the 2nd half. This usually broken up into OP1 around Aug/Sep and OP2 around Nov/Dec. OP doc is a standard Amazon 6 pager created by each team in word. Team in this case is probably 10-100 people.

It will summarize the team’s charter, past initiatives and metrics, and propose future initiatives. This is also where you ask for headcount for the following year, by proposing unfunded initiatives along with desired headcount.

There isn’t much top-down formal alignment before OP1, this is left to the teams to figure out on their own, including sometimes merging / sharing OP1s. Lots of teams have both passive and active submission process from partner teams, starting somewhere around June/July.

Teams are expected to do some pre-review of the OP1 with key partners. Partner surprises are a trust breaker best avoided. All stakeholders will also be invited to the OP1 review with your VP (or so). These can be big meetings, but still usually done in 1 hr.

After the OP1 review teams will have a bunch of action items to go figure out before the OP2. Often feedback will require talking to other teams to revise commitments and figure out alignment. This takes a lot of time, especially since it crosses peak day preparations.

The leaders will take ideas from the teams, and ideas they have, create their own OP1, and bubble stuff up to senior leadership (S-Team). From the results of those meetings, headcount and the big s-team initiatives will tunnel back down, and be added to team OP2 docs.

While everyone talks about OP1 season, OP2 might be skipped (without doc or meeting or even mention). There will still be a lot of energy tracked in emails, comments, and action items from OP1. that's the informal OP2.

In January, teams will have to lock in their annual goals, usually using a tool called kingpin. Exact structure varies by team, of course, but they similar to OKRs or SMART goals. 3 or more tiers of goals are normal: S-team, Quarterly, and Team.

S-team goals are company visible (eg, adding Sweden marketplace, launch new Alexa device). Quarterly are VP scope business focused (eg, increasing DAU or growing revenue). Team goals are where you find feature launches, reliability, migrations, infrastructure, etc.

So this is a version of “top-down-meets-bottoms-up” and it does take a long time, usually starting in July and not really finishing until January. Sounds non-rushed, but reality requires rushed phases.

Of course, with agile changes, OP1 doc is almost instantaneously an anachronism, but it still serves as an anchor and the quickest way to ramp up on what a team is up to, even a year later. "hey, new team, can I see your OP1?"