- Ethan Evans, a former Amazon VP, led a failed project in 2011 that interrupted Jeff Bezos’ launch plans.
- The failure involved a critical design flaw in the Amazon Appstore’s “Test Drive” feature.
- It taught Evans to communicate in a crisis, take ownership of a problem, and rebuild trust slowly.
I worked at Amazon for 15 years, starting in 2005 as a senior manager. When I left in 2020, I was a vice president.
My biggest launch failure was in 2011 on a project Jeff Bezos personally cared about. The failure interrupted Bezos’ plan to present the feature publicly, causing me to miss my promotion and almost leave the company. However, I went on to be promoted from director to VP and have a long and happy career.
I learned a lot about dealing with a crisis and rebuilding trust as well as a lot about Bezos as a leader. He taught me the importance of maintaining high standards while being willing to forgive and…