2024 in review

From Intention to Resilience

Dear Leaders,

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings you joy, growth, and success.

As I sit down to write this on the last day of the year, I can't help but think about where I was exactly one year ago. Last January, I wrote about being more intentional. I quoted Jeff Bezos: 'Good intentions don't work. Mechanisms do.' I had big plans - both for our Developer Relations organization at AWS and for The Pay It Forward Society, my leadership podcast.

2024 taught me more about leadership than I expected, just not in the ways I imagined. Sometimes growth comes from challenge rather than choice. Looking back at my journey through 2024, I want to share what I learned about leading through uncertainty, building trust, and staying true to your principles even when facing tough decisions.

Let me start with the early months of 2024...

A Tough Start of the Year

At work, the organizational transformation was driven by a need to better serve our developer community. Teams reported constant friction working across the org. Simple tasks became complex orchestrations - publishing a video could take up to five weeks. Inspired by 'Team Topologies' and its stream-aligned model, I envisioned uniting all Developer Advocates under one team, and create clear boundaries with other teams in the org. By defining clear 'APIs' between teams with explicit interactions, priorities, and responsibilities, my intent was to limit dependencies, reduce friction and accelerate our ability to deliver value to customers.

Reality proved more complex. While I “received” leadership of Developer Advocacy, the organization change wasn't communicated for three months. I found myself in an awkward limbo - meeting with managers and teams who didn't officially report to me, learning about their work but unable to properly inspect or influence it by engaging with stakeholders. My then-manager, concerned about team preservation in a time when changes were happening across the company, delayed the formal announcement of both our strategy and the org changes we wanted to operate- an understandable but costly decision that, in my view, contradicted Amazon's principle of working backwards from customer needs. Indeed, I felt that this was not optimizing for customers, but for keeping our organization untouched.

This delay had ripple effects. Teams began executing their plans without strategic alignment, because it was not clearly communicated. Rumors of reorganizations spread, while nothing was announced, and team morale suffered as leadership appeared misaligned. At a time where tech companies were letting their employees go, and many Developer Relations teams being disbanded, it increased the anxiety in the organization. The first quarter showed me how hard change can be. I had a clear vision for improving how we serve developers, but was not able to execute. Looking back, I made a mistake. I waited for formal authority when I could have led through influence. My peer and I were aligned on the next steps - I should have partnered with him to communicate more clearly with the teams, irrespective of reporting lines. Instead of waiting for an organizational announcement, we could have reduced uncertainty by sharing our aligned vision. This was a hard reminder that leadership isn't just about formal authority - it's about taking initiative, driving clarity, and building bridges.

Meanwhile, my podcast The Pay It Forward Society taught me valuable lessons about leadership. Each conversation with inspiring leaders gave me new insights about supporting teams, setting goals, and managing priorities. I applied these ideas with my own teams. But as my work demands grew, maintaining the podcast became harder, and harder. Each episode required multiple steps: finding the right leaders, connecting with them, planning conversations, recording, editing, publishing, promoting. With my increasing workload, I couldn't give the podcast, and the community, the attention they deserved. My initial plan to publish content regularly fell behind. This was frustrating. So much for being intentional…

Then came April, and everything shifted.

Weathering the Storm: Leading Through Turbulence

Just as we announced our organizational changes in Developer Relations, a larger transformation swept through AWS Marketing a few weeks later. We received a new leader who brought additional teams under the umbrella. In the midst of this transition, my manager moved to a different role. The timing was challenging - we hadn't fully explained our strategy and planned changes before this shift occurred.

The pace of change accelerated dramatically. New leadership brought a different operating rhythm, with shifting priorities and urgent requests becoming our new normal. The environment grew more intense, with frequent new initiatives requiring immediate attention and extensive documentation.

I made a conscious choice to shield my teams from the constant stream of changes and urgent requests, as much as I could. Like an umbrella in a storm, I absorbed the pressure of shifting priorities so they could focus on execution. While I shared our strategic direction, I filtered the numerous tactical demands that came our way. This protection came at a personal cost - I was caught between giving my teams clear direction while managing an increasing flow of pointed requests from above.

In May and June, our leadership team developed a new strategy. We took a collaborative approach, organizing numerous document reviews with teams across AWS. This process taught me a valuable lesson: sharing early and often not only improves ideas but builds crucial coalitions. Each round of feedback helped sharpen our message and create alignment with key stakeholders. We were building momentum through collaboration.

The CEO approved our strategy in early July - a significant milestone. Yet this victory brought new challenges. We were already in the second half of the year, and we needed the teams to adopt the new strategy. I tried to communicate as often as I could on the main topics that I was expecting not to change as we were going through all the reviews. So it would not come as a complete surprise.

As I reflected on the situation, I kept thinking about David Marquet's 'Turn the Ship Around.' Our challenge wasn't just about changing direction while maintaining full speed - it was about how to do this while fostering team empowerment. The stream of highly specific requests from above ('create six two-minute videos about this feature') left little room for team creativity and ownership. Instead of giving directional guidance ('create content that inspires developers to do X') and letting teams figure out the best approach, we were operating in a command-and-control mode. This went against everything I believed about enabling teams to think and innovate.

Bridging Strategy and Execution: Finding Room for Autonomy

While we had a high-level strategy approved, our teams faced a challenging paradox. On one side, they had broad strategic goals that weren't clearly connected to their daily work. On the other, they received a constant stream of tactical requests that felt disconnected from that strategy. How could we empower teams caught between these two extremes?

To bridge this gap, I launched an initiative with a small group of managers and team members. Our goal was ambitious: create a practical implementation plan that would reshape how we work, in collaboration with other internal organization to scale our effort. Building upon the stream-aligned model I had introduced in Developer Advocacy, I expanded this approach across Developer Relations worldwide. We went through an intensive collaboration process - 50 document reviews with team members, peers, and stakeholders. Each review provided an opportunity to refine our thinking, incorporate new ideas, and clarify our approach.

The resulting framework, approved by senior leadership, worked on multiple levels. Internally, it took inspiration from Daniel Pink's principles of 'Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.' Rather than prescribing specific tactics, it outlined key initiatives while giving local teams the freedom to determine how to execute them. The model clarified roles and responsibilities both within teams and with our partners. Externally, it created alignment with partner organizations across AWS, establishing shared goals and securing commitments for additional resources - both headcount and budget - to support our execution.

This wasn't just an implementation plan; it was a comprehensive operating model that gave teams the clarity, resources, and autonomy they needed to succeed. While execution is still in its early stages, two promising signs have emerged: teams have responded positively to this new way of working, and we've established strong partnerships with other internal organizations for 2025. These early wins suggest we're moving in the right direction - from strategy on paper to meaningful change in practice.

Just as we were gaining momentum with our new operating model, a significant announcement shook our remote-first world. In late September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mandated a return to office, emphasizing the importance of team collocation. For our globally distributed Developer Relations team, this created a new layer of complexity.

The RTO Challenge

This was one of the most stressful periods in my leadership journey. As a leader, knowing the profound impact our decisions would have on people's lives weighed heavily on me. The situation forced me to confront complex realities about workplace flexibility and equity.

I see clear benefits in physical collaboration. Team collocation can spark innovation through spontaneous interactions and strengthen relationships. Personally, I enjoy working from an office - it's a 35-minute commute from my San Francisco home, and my wife's flexible schedule makes this manageable. But I recognize my privilege in this situation. Not everyone has these circumstances.

Remote work has opened doors for many: women balancing career and family, people of color, professionals living outside of large cities, those caring for dependants. A return to office mandate disproportionately impacts workplace diversity. For readers interested in deeper analysis of RTO's broader impacts, Brian's work offers valuable insights. Follow his work.

In Developer 'Relations,' our work presents unique considerations. Building and nurturing relationships with developer communities is core to our mission. While virtual engagement serves a purpose, in-person connections often create deeper impact. Yet this raised a challenging question: how do we balance the benefits of team collocation with our need to be present in developer communities, all while considering the personal impact on our team members?

The implementation brought difficult decisions. We identified specific hubs and asked team members to relocate. Weeks of uncertainty followed as details about relocation packages and compensation were worked out. This period of ambiguity increased team anxiety and stress. Some talented team members chose to pursue new opportunities, both within Amazon and elsewhere. Others are still weighing their decisions, and I expect we'll lose more valuable teammates in the weeks ahead.

These changes will echo into 2025. We'll need to rebuild team capabilities, which takes time and energy. But the bigger challenge will be rebuilding trust - arguably the most precious and fragile asset in any organization.

Throughout this period, I maintained constant communication with my teams, even when I had no new information to share. Simply being present and transparent mattered. What touched me deeply was when team members - those facing difficult relocation decisions - checked in on my wellbeing. As someone living near a hub, not facing relocation myself, their concern for me was unexpected and humbling. Their thoughtfulness, especially during their own period of uncertainty, suggested that my efforts to lead with empathy had resonated. It was a powerful reminder that leadership isn't just about making decisions - it's about building human connections with authenticity.

A Year of Storms and Strength

Looking back at 2024, I can't deny the dark days - moments when I questioned whether to seek other paths. The challenges were relentless, from organizational changes to difficult team decisions. But like a captain in a storm, I felt a deep responsibility to my crew. Leaving during turbulent times wasn't an option.

Despite the challenges, I remain optimistic. Amazon is like a large ship - it may face rough seas, but its compass always points toward customers. Our leadership principles provide the mechanisms to stay on course and do the right things. I trust it will happen soon.

What fills me with the most pride is my team. Through every wave of change, they maintained their passion for our mission. Their commitment to engaging and delivering value to developers never wavered. Even in December, they continued to deliver with excellence.

We've made our case clear: developers remain critical for AWS's success. With strong support from our CEO and senior leadership, we're positioned to work across the organization to delight our customers in new ways. This alignment and support energizes me. As we enter 2025, I see more than just recovery - I see opportunity. We have the backing, the team, and the mission to make a real difference.

The storm may have tested us, but it also proved our resilience. I've never been more excited about what lies ahead.