Learn and Be Curious with Doug Herrington

Ever wonder what’s helping to power  the success of some of your favorite small and medium-sized businesses on Amazon? For many sellers, it’s FBA—Fulfillment by Amazon. FBA started as a single truck and a single bet—that taking fulfillment off sellers' plates would let them focus on building their business. Nobody knew if it would work. Twenty years later, it has reshaped delivery speed, shipped billions of units for sellers across dozens of countries, and helped sellers grow their sales significantly. Join Doug and VP of FBA Product and Technology, Piyush Saraogi, to learn about why he’s stayed with this team for nearly the entirety of his 12-year Amazon career, how he’s seen it change the game for sellers around the world firsthand, and where he sees it going next.

(00:00) – Inviting Sellers to Amazon

(00:47) – Fulfillment by Amazon 

(01:14) – Piyush’s Pre-Amazon Story 

(03:05) – Piyush’s Amazon Story 

(06:00) – What’s a seller? 

(07:30) – What’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)? 

(10:40) – “Leveling the Playing Field” for Sellers 

(13:44) – Early Days of Scaling FBA 

(18:03) – Importance of Delivery Speeds 

(19:25) – Reaching Rural Customers 

(21:08) – Advice for Sellers 

(23:05) – Flip the Script: Inviting Sellers to Amazon 

(28:08) – Supporting Seller Success: “FBA Will Handle the Rest” 

Amazon is reimagining how customers shop with the introduction of Alexa for Shopping, the world's best AI shopping assistant. It pairs product expertise and AI intelligence with your personal preferences, shopping history, and conversations from across both Amazon.com and Alexa. Doug Herrington sits down with Rajiv Mehta, Vice President of Conversational Shopping, to discuss how the team brought Rufus and Alexa+ together into one experience. Doug and Rajiv talk about the early days of Rufus, why context carryover (the way AI gets to know you and remember you based on previous interactions) matters more than people think, where agentic commerce goes from here, and how Customer Obsession will guide how Alexa for Shopping evolves.

(00:00) – Welcome and AI

(00:45) – Conversational Shopping at Amazon

(01:04) – What’s Rajiv’s Amazon story?

(02:25) – Amazon’s Writing Culture

(05:05) – Early Conversational Shopping

(05:41) – The Early Days of Rufus and PRFAQs

(10:05) – Building Our Own Foundational Model

(12:05) – What’s changed since we started?

(14:09) – Personalization

(16:37) – Integrating the Technology

(19:50) – Pushing the Bounds of Alexa for Shopping

(23:10) – What’s been most challenging?

(24:50) – Crystal Ball Prediction

(26:35) – Selection and Scale

(31:00) – Flip the Script: What would you do with an extra hour in your workday?

(33:25) – Mechanisms List

(34:40) – AI at Amazon

(36:00) – Customer Obsession in Alexa for Shopping

(37:30) – Thank you and Goodbyes

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What does it take to keep prices low on hundreds of millions of products? In this episode, Doug sits down with Christa Glenn, Vice President of Pricing and Promotions at Amazon. Christa shares how Amazon's pricing philosophy puts customers first (and profit second), why tenets matter, and how her team prepares for Prime Day. And along the way, Christa and Doug swap stories about the first Prime Day, how they're using AI day to day, and their mutual sock obsession. 

(00:00) – Amazon Pricing

(00:55) – Christa’s Amazon Story

(02:57) – Amazon Campus

(06:45) – “Startup” Mentality

(07:33) – Seller Pricing

(10:20) – Amazon’s Pricing Philosophy

(14:30) – Pricing Escalations

(15:23) – Pricing Comparisons

(17:15) – What’s new in pricing?

(18:33) – Garlic Press Tests

(19:18) – Price History Feature

(20:29) – Pricing Tenets

(21:28) – Early Prime Day Memories

(25:00) – Amazon’s First Prime Day

(26:58) – Prime Day Today

(28:00) – Personalized Prime Day

(28:55) – Socks! and Other Deals

(30:23) – Flip the Script: Experimenting with AI

(31:55) – AI as a “Mentor”

(33:24) – AI Analyzing Email

(34:47) – Importance of Pricing at Amazon

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What does it take to run a 665,000-square-foot fulfillment center with 3,000 employees and millions of products? In this episode, Doug sits down with Alessandro Carbone, an Amazon General Manager who traded his law career in Italy—and never looked back. Alessandro shares how he thinks about flowing a building like a river, why a clean floor is a safety strategy, and what it means to lead like a mayor of a small Italian town. Along the way, they discuss the magic of getting avocados and AirPods to your door by morning, and why stepping outside your comfort zone is the best career advice he's ever followed.  

(00:00) – Introduction

(01:05) – What’s your Amazon story?

(02:00) – Amazon Pathways Program

(02:45) – Transitioning to Amazon

(03:13) – Amazon Culture

(05:11) – An Amazon Family

(06:20) – Alessandro’s ACY1 Site

(07:05) – Robotics at Amazon

(09:15) – Explaining Amazon to Alessandro’s “Nonna”

(11:00) – The Heart of Amazon’s Network

(14:45) – What does a GM do?

(17:00) – Walking the Floor

(19:00) – Complicated vs. Complex Problems

(22:12) – “Flowing” the Building

(23:15) – Operations Secret Sauce

(25:57) – 5S and Safety

(29:35) – ACY1 Culture

(32:33) – Service Leadership

(33:39) – “Flip the Script” – Alexa for Shopping

(38:08) – Shopping Beyond Amazon

(39:10) – Breaking out of your Comfort Zone

(40:43) – Obstacle is the Way

(41:37) – Learn and Be Curious Origin Story

(43:13) – Conclusion and Thank You

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Amazon is transforming how customers shop for groceries by bringing fresh perishables directly to customers through Same-Day Delivery on Amazon.com. Doug Herrington sits down with Sidira Sisich, a Senior Product Manager on the Amazon Grocery team, to explore how Amazon integrated fresh produce, meat, dairy, and more into its Operations network. Doug and Sidira talk about why speed matters in business, the excitement around "zero-to-one innovations,” and an old project called Amazon Wine.

(00:00) — Welcome and Sidira’s Amazon Story

(04:19) — Amazon’s Early Clothing Business

(08:05) — Amazon Wine

(11:12) — Early Amazon Grocery

(12:36) — Perishable Groceries on Amazon

(13:58) — Doug’s Amazon Interview with Jeff Bezos

(17:22) — Perishable Product Growth

(19:13) — Early Days of Amazon Fresh

(21:40) — Zero to One Businesses

(23:57) — “Flip the Script”

(24:31) — Speed Matters in Business  

Resources:

Learn how Amazon expanded fresh groceries with Same-Day Delivery:

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states

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Over the past three years, Amazon has hit record-breaking delivery speeds—and our customers are loving it. Learn about one of the ways Amazon is innovating to bring faster delivery for all kinds of products in cities and rural communities alike. Doug Herrington sits down with Kandace Kapps, a Director in Same-Day Ops Integration, to explore how Amazon continues to get faster—and safer. They also discuss Kandace’s career path at Amazon—the importance of betting on yourself, practicing service-oriented leadership, and Amazon’s famed Treasure Truck.

Timestamps:

(00:00) – Why speed matters?

(01:59) – Kandace, what’s your Amazon story? 

(03:37) – Kandace’s time as an Area Manager 

(04:31) – Working for Amazon Robotics 

(06:30) – Working for Treasure Truck aka “The Steak Truck” 

(12:50) – Marshawn Lynch at the Treasure Truck 

(13:55) – The Early Days of Amazon’s Same Day Network 

(16:10) – Speed Records 

(19:19) – It all comes together for customers 

(21:38) – Continuation of Speed and New Offerings 

(22:26) – Faster and Safer 

(23:12) – Field Leadership Learnings  

(26:05) – “Flip the Script” - Visible Leadership 

(32:12) – Speed is changing how customers shop

Episode Resources:

• Check out the latest on Amazon’s record-breaking fast delivery.
• Amazon’s ultra-fast Amazon Now offering. And Amazon’s latest fast delivery offering. 

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What if getting prescription medication were as simple as online shopping? After reinventing shopping, Amazon is applying the same innovative thinking to healthcare, delivering prescriptions to customers’ doorsteps and in creative new ways like kiosks.

Doug Herrington sits down with Hannah McClellan, VP of Amazon Pharmacy Operations, to explore how Amazon Pharmacy works, what problems it is designed to solve, and why Amazon believes it can improve one of the most frustrating parts of modern healthcare. They also discuss how Hannah’s career led her to this moment, and the advice she has for Amazonians navigating big career moves.

Timestamps:

(01:35) — Hannah, what is your Amazon story?

(03:50) — “I remember thinking, is my career at Amazon over?”

(08:30) — What is a “Technical Advisor” at Amazon?

(10:25) — You have a lot of opportunities in front of you and you choose Amazon Pharmacy — why?

(12:20) — Is Amazon Pharmacy just like any other pharmacy?

(15:30) — What happens in the background when my doctor sends a prescription to Amazon Pharmacy?

(18:20) — How are you getting so fast with delivery?

(23:09) — Do you get any feedback from customers?

(24:46) — What are our Pharmacy kiosks?

(26:43) — Is there a Leadership Principle you lean on most in this role?

(28:25) — Jeff Bezos was relentlessly purposeful in using culture to get everyone to row in the same direction — how do you think we’re doing now in this regard?

(31:37) — Are we still living up to our Leadership Principles?

(32:10) — What’s your advice when people ask about taking risks and trying different things in your career?

Episode Resources:

• Learn more about Amazon Pharmacy: https://pharmacy.amazon.com

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Hosted by Amazon’s CEO of Worldwide Stores, Learn and Be Curious with Doug Herrington goes inside Amazon’s innovation. In each episode, Doug and his fellow Amazonians unpack how new products, inventions, and ideas are developed, tested, and scaled within Amazon’s peculiar culture.