I came across a fascinating interview with Andrei Styskin (Director at Amazon, former CEO of Yandex’s search portal), in which Andrei talks about some interesting aspects of Amazon’s internal culture — in particular, its «document-centric» approach to meetings and decision-making.
- Every work meeting is a collaborative exercise in which participants work through a pre-prepared document on a specific problem. Part of the time (10 to 20 minutes) is spent reading the document independently; the rest is used for discussion and commentary. If open questions remain after the meeting, another one is scheduled in the same format. The process continues until requirements are unambiguously defined and agreed upon by all stakeholders.
- Requirements for any product or feature are worked out using the «Working Backwards» method, through two documents: a «Press Release» and a «FAQ.» The product manager writes the press release well before the launch, establishing a vision of the ideal outcome that the entire product team can use as a north star throughout development.
- All decisions are made through document reviews — not in casual verbal conversations during meetings or at the watercooler, as so often happens elsewhere.
Reflecting on my time at Yandex (a great company, though not quite on Amazon’s scale — in 2024, Yandex’s market cap was around $10 billion, compared to Amazon’s $2 trillion), I can say that the company’s internal culture actively encouraged employees to express their thinking in writing: Yandex had a strong tradition of maintaining detailed wiki documentation, writing thorough task descriptions in trackers, discussing issues in comments, and keeping internal blogs — both public and anonymous. The more senior the employee, the more convincingly and concisely they wrote and communicated.
Incidentally, I know several editors and journalists who became highly successful product managers remarkably quickly. I’m convinced their mastery of written language played a significant role in that journey. Why else would I be running this Telegram channel?
In contrast, I often see junior specialists drowning in a sea of tools — Miro sticky notes, spreadsheets, arrows, Notion features — and producing documents with minimal value or substance. Instead of simply opening a plain text editor, sitting down in silence, and writing out their thoughts as a coherent, logically connected story.
Unfortunately, the culture of most companies does little to foster strong writing skills, and not a single management course I’m aware of treats this as a meaningful competency. So, fellow product managers, developing this skill is something you’ll have to take into your own hands. The best way to do it: read difficult texts, and write difficult texts.
One key value of a document-centric culture is reaching shared understanding of a problem — and its best solution — across all stakeholders. But there’s a second, more fundamental benefit for the individual thinker: when writing, we can think with sustained focus and hold our attention on a problem for hours at a time — far longer than is possible in spoken conversation. What’s more, writing lets you pause and step away, then return to exactly where you left off, with your energy and attention fully restored.
Paradoxically, the final text produced through this kind of concentrated creative process can end up being radically different from the original idea. Some of the meaning in the finished piece will only emerge through the act of deep writing itself. And some thoughts you’ll have to wrestle with — quite literally.
It turns out that Amazon’s «document-centric» culture does more than just bring transparency to communication — it actively helps the people building the company’s products develop critical thinking and the ability to solve non-trivial problems. The culture creates a productive intellectual work environment, and that shows up in the company’s competitiveness and business results.
Sure, you can’t always influence the culture of your organization — but developing your own critical thinking is within anyone’s reach. You don’t even need expensive training for that. A far more useful starting exercise is this: pick any topic that genuinely interests you, find a quiet place free of distractions, and write an article about it. The exercise works equally well for professional challenges and personal ones.
Many interesting people in the industry have written about thinking through writing. I highly recommend exploring the original sources linked below.
- Paul Graham (co-founder of Hacker News, named one of «The 25 Most Influential People on the Web» in 2008) published a post on his blog called «Putting Ideas into Words», in which he describes the value of writing essays as a way of thinking through a problem.
- David Heinemeier Hansson (co-owner of 37signals, creator of Ruby on Rails) talks in a short YouTube interview about his experience of writing and how it shaped his career. The whole thing can be summed up in one line: «Clear writing is clear thinking.»
- Georgy Shchedrovitsky (Soviet philosopher and prolific author on the theory of management) wrote in his book Organizational and Managerial Thinking: «If a person doesn’t write — they don’t think.» Shchedrovitsky’s work has had a profound influence on me as a manager and leader — I wholeheartedly recommend it.
- Anatoly Levenchuk (founder of the School of Systems Management and author of numerous lectures) published an article «Cortex and Exocortex» on why thinking with a pencil and paper is more productive — tools he associates with the exocortex (an external information-processing system that extends and amplifies human intelligence).
- Andy Matuschak (a researcher working at the intersection of UX/UI and learning) wrote a brilliant piece called «Why books don’t work», in which he reflects on why simply reading books or listening to lectures isn’t enough to actually absorb knowledge. To truly internalize material, you need to actively engage with it — and writing an essay is one of the best ways to do that.
This list could go on, but I’ll save the rest for a third installment.
And finally, a note to myself: write down your thoughts and ideas more often. Work through them in writing.