Amazon Interview Worksheet

FRUGALITY

Definition and Indicators

Frugality: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount,
budget size or fixed expense.
What this looks like in Practice
As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you…
 Ask, “Does this spend make a positive impact for the customer?
 Role model behaviors for team by not exhibiting “hierarchical” behavior like  Creatively spend money and share your resources?
taking a larger office, expensing lunches, being extravagant?  Seek out “no-cost” alternatives prior to spending?
 Being transparent with team about costs – creating a general awareness that
things cost money?
 Understand the difference between frugal and cheap?

Frugality - Suggested Behavioral Interview Questions

For each question you choose, use a separate STAR Worksheet
Questions for (Manager) in parentheses

1. Give me an example of how you have helped save costs or eliminate waste within your operation.
2. Tell me about a time when you had to make tradeoffs between quality and cost. How did you weigh the options? What was the result?
3. Tell me about a time you had to get something done with half or two thirds of the resources you thought you’d need for the project or initiative.
4. Tell me about a time when you generated a creative solution to a problem or project without requiring additional resources. What was the problem?
What was the solution and how did you come up with it?
5. Tell me about a time you didn’t have enough resources to do something you felt was important but found a creative way to get it done anyway. What
drove you to seek out creative solutions?
6. Give an example of a time you requested additional funding/budget to complete a project. Why was it needed? Did you try to figure out another
approach? Did you get the additional resources? Why or why not?
7. Give an example of a time when you challenged your team to come up with more efficient solution or process. What drove the request? How did you
help? (Manager)
8. How do you determine when to award or ask for additional resources? What criteria do you use for making the call? (Manager)
9. Tell me how you have created organization (or customer) value through either increased revenue stream or lowering the cost structure. (Manager)

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STAR WORKSHEET
Your Behavioral Question:___________________________________________________________________Leadership Principle:_________________
 Choose behavioral question that provoke specific examples or stories for your assigned Leadership Principle(s).
 Process the example using STAR. Stories have beginnings (Situation/Task), middles (Actions) and ends (Results).
 Once you have established the story, PROBE to dive deeper on your assigned competency (Leadership Principle), get clarity or pursue a concern.
 If appropriate, CHALLENGE the candidate’s statements, decisions or thought process.
SITUATION/TASK - Describe the situation/task you faced and the context of the story Notes

S Answers the questions: where did this occur, when did it happen, why is it important?
Probing Questions:



Why is this important? What was the goal?
What was the initial scope of the project? What were the challenges?
What were the risks and potential consequences if nothing happened?

T
Challenge Questions:
 Why did you choose this story to illustrate a xyz accomplishment?
 What other stories can you think of that demonstrate.. xyz?
 Could you come up with an example that is more recent?
ACTION - What actions did you take?

A Answers the questions: what did you personally own, how did you do it, who else was involved?
Probing Questions:
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

Deep probe functional expertise and/or assigned core competency.
Were you the key driver or project owner?
What was your biggest contribution? What unique value did you bring?
 What were the most significant obstacles you faced? How did you overcome them?
Challenge Questions:
 What did you do specifically versus the team?
 How did you set priorities…deal with xyz problem… or get manager buy-in?
 What decisions did you challenge? Why? How did you influence the right outcome?
RESULTS - How did you measure success for this project?

R
What results did you achieve?
$ Cost savings, revenue generation
# Quantify to understand volume, size, scale
% Percentage change, year over year improvements
 Time to market, implementation time, time savings
 Impact on the customer, the team
 Quality improvements
Probing Questions:
 Why did you choose to focus on these results? What other results were important?
 You mentioned revenue, what percentage change is that year over year?
 What trade-offs did you have to make to achieve this? (quality, cost, time)
 I’m concerned about… (the time it took, the volume, the customer impact), tell me more…
Challenge Questions:
 What were the lessons learned? What would you have done differently?
 How would you implement this at Amazon?
 How did these results compare to your actual goals? (refer back to goal stated in Situation)

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