Name: Amazon Case Study: Detail Pages
Uploaded: 2025-07-02T19:46:48+00:00
Duration: 10 min 50 s
Description: In this lesson, we apply everything we've learned about input metrics by walking through a real-world case from Amazon—h

Amazon Case Study: Detail Pages

In this lesson, we apply everything we've learned about input metrics by walking through a real-world case from Amazon—how we evolved our **selection metric** to better align with customer needs. This story illustrates the complexity, rigor, and iteration involved in making metrics truly actionable and impactful.

### Key Takeaways:

- **We started by identifying strategic input metrics**: Inspired by Amazon’s **growth flywheel**, we identified controllable levers—like low prices, broad selection, and fast delivery—that directly improved the customer experience and fueled long-term growth.

- **We didn’t wait for perfect metrics to begin**: We initially used simple metrics like the number of product detail pages to represent selection, even if they were imperfect. Early measurement got teams moving in the right direction.

- **We learned through missteps**: Our first metric for selection encouraged teams to add lots of SKUs—regardless of demand. Sales didn’t grow, and excess inventory piled up. This forced us to iterate.

- **We refined our metric to reflect actual customer experience**: Over time, we evolved to more nuanced metrics like **detail page views for in-stock items**, and ultimately to **Demand-Weighted Coverage FastTrack In-Stock Percentage (DWC FT %)**—a metric that captured whether customers could *find*, *want*, and *get* an item quickly.

- **We aligned goals with customer value**: Category managers were now measured by how well their products met real customer demand and delivery expectations—not just raw catalog size.

- **We replaced estimates with precise real-time measurements**: When anecdotes didn’t match our metric outcomes, we realized the problem wasn’t in customer feedback—it was in how we were measuring. We moved from snapshot-based approximations to real-time software tracking, which required serious engineering investment.

- **We treated metric-building as an ongoing process**: Measurement accuracy improved over years of trial and error, and nearly every customer-facing metric eventually transitioned from rough proxies to live calculations.

### To dive deeper into Input Metrics Mastery and learn more from Bill and Colin, follow these links:

- Take the full course at their website: <https://workingbackwards.com/>

- Buy the book: <https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595>

- Bill's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/>

- Colin's LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinbryar/>

In this lesson, we apply everything we've learned about input metrics by walking through a real-world case from Amazon—h