I'm starting a new job at Amazon Lab126
Although without a doubt I will miss my colleagues and projects that I worked on at 41st Parameter / Experian, the switch to Amazon Lab126 presents a lot of new opportunities that I’m really excited about. For example, I’ll likely be working on documentation for more mainstream commercial products in the public space, which are engineered in the Lab126 location.
I don’t have a lot of detail, so I’ll keep this post short. One small note about the “Lab126” part of the name. Lab126 is where a lot of the hardware devices (such as Fire TV, Kindle, or Echo) are developed, hence the “lab” part of the name.
The “126” doesn’t refer to an address but rather to the numbers 1 and 26, representing the positions to the first and last letter in the alphabet, reflecting the A to Z arrow in the Amazon logo. Here’s the official explanation:
The Lab126 name originated from the arrow in the Amazon logo, which draws a line from A to Z in “Amazon.” In Lab126, the 1 stands for “A” and the “26” stands for “Z.” The subsidiary functions as an Amazon lab of innovation, research, and development for consumer electronics products, drawing the best minds in Silicon Valley together.
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Amazon has a list of 14 leadership principles. One of Amazon’s leadership principles is “Customer Obsession”:
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
I like the idea of starting with the customer and working backwards.
As always, I will continue to blog about my experiences in tech comm, so stay tuned and perhaps you’ll see an evolution of thoughts, processes, and other details in upcoming posts.
About Tom Johnson
I'm a technical writer / API doc specialist based in the Seattle area. In this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, visual communication, information architecture, writing techniques, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation if you're looking for more info about that. If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the field, be sure to subscribe to email updates. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.