“Them” — and how they’re always screwing up

I previously ran the tech teams for FreeTime / FreeTime Unlimited, Amazon’s kids digital subscription product. I had sent the below email to my team, and with a few very small tweaks, I decided I’d just post it.

For a tiny bit of context on my “mechanisms” and “good intentions” phrasing below, there’s a fantastic internal video of Jeff B talking about why good intentions don’t work, mechanisms work. It’s very convincing, and I wish I could share the link with all of you. In summary however, it beats into your head that we all want the right thing done, so our implementation of the right thing is what we need to work on. Saying “We’re going to try really hard this time” is not a way to solve a problem. Saying “We’re going to try something different” is how you solve a problem.