1/ . @kimmytaylor I’m not on the reply list but wanted to share my story (and will answer your question at the end). I joined AWS as a PM ~9 years ago. CS undergrad, did brief stints in consulting and finance but wanted ownership. Enter startups. Also, my first tweet thread! https://twitter.com/kimmytaylor/status/1293365555823382530

2/ Went out for happy hour on a Tuesday with three friends in 1999 and a week later, we all quit to try and start a company. We had a number of good ideas but joined other (way more experienced) friends to co-found our first one and moved from Boston to the Bay Area

3/ This company was Quova - IP->Geo mapping. Looking back, I was clueless, not dumb, and I cared. Had an awesome time and learned a ton. After that, post bubble, bounced around a bit but ended up working for great founders and people ( @AndySack and @crashdev) in Seattle

4/ Learned so much from them. They both believed in me and gave me a shot. They also backed my next company, a digital media analytics company I had to shut down. Learned so much but I’m disappointed I couldn’t generate value for folks that believed in me.

5/ Shutting that down meant I had to make over a dozen calls to people that bet on me that I had failed. I’ll never forget what they said (paraphrasing) - you left it all on the field and you learned; there’s no failure here. I’ve never been so humbled. I cried on some calls.

6/ As I wound the company down, I specially chose PM at AWS because I wanted ownership, accountability, and I was passionate about the intersection of technology and business. AWS PMs own the roadmap, growth, and customer experience, a role that mapped to my startup DNA.

7/ AWS took a chance on me. I thought I knew things, but I was clueless. Thankfully, the folks on my loop saw someone with smarts and something to prove. I will forever be grateful they took a chance on me. (I am incredibly lucky and have had more opportunities than so many).

8/ I chose product management because I wanted to be at the center of technology, customers, strategy, operations, revenue, and more. I viewed my role as being the non-technical co-founder of the company that was my product.

9/ AWS has been amazing to me. The PM role here is the most widely scoped I’ve ever seen (yes, biased). I’ve been lucky enough to work on caching, relational databases, data warehouses, big data, data lakes, blockchain, graph databases, ledger databases, and more.

10/ my view is that folks who love tech and customers and want to have impact and don’t care about glory make great PMs. Although the role may get less fashionable, for the right person, it’s amazing. And yes, I got lucky; lottery winner lucky.

11/ But, it’s ok to be lucky if you realize it and put in the work. (Pro tip: if you give credit to others, you’ll go further.)

12/ The PM at AWS role is an amazing one. I hope it goes out of fashion because the folks who still seek it out are folks I want to work with. It is an iceberg role - the majority of the work is invisible.

13/ PMs are influencers with few reports. That’s ok. No matter how many people roll up to you, all leadership is influence. (And sales)

14/ If you’re someone that cares about the little things that separate good PMs from great ones, you want to have impact and ownership, or you just have questions about why a 14 year startup guy loves AWS after almost a decade, I’m at [email protected]. #ProductManagement #AWS

15/ one closing thought - startup skills are a super power in life. Doing more with less, convincing people to join a crazy mission, there’s magic here. There’s always a way. And, AWS is a place that rewards this mindset. Drop me a line.

16/ in keeping with the irony that labeling anything ‘final’ guarantees it won’t be, this is an AMA. Any question is fair game. You have my email, but I can choose not to answer, or we can talk privately but game on. Day One, baby!

17/ if anyone is curious about mistakes I’ve made, to quote a great movie, “the list is long and distinguished.” As long as you learn, mistakes are ok. They make you better. “The Obstacle is the Way”.

18/ One more thought before bed. Life is short. Pay it forward. Help at least one person in your orbit. All big things start small. Let’s start something.