The newest member of Microsoft’s executive ranks is taking a page from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, according to an internal email viewed by Business Insider.
Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put Jay Parikh in charge of a new unit called CoreAI, which helps developers build AI agents capable of working alongside human employees.
Parikh has been sending weekly memos to his new team, detailing goals, early accomplishments, and advice to address what he sees as problems within the company.
In one of the memos, Parikh shared takeaways from an annual letter Jassy sent to Amazon shareholders in April. This provides clues on how Parikh might change things at Microsoft.
‘Customer First’
In his memo, Parikh mentioned that Jassy used the word “customer” 63 times in the latest Amazon shareholder letter.
“Everyone knows customer obsession is core to Amazon’s culture, and the frequency of the word ‘customer’ in his letter is a good reminder,” Parikh wrote. “What can we do differently or better to deepen our understanding and deliver better outcomes for our customers? Take a moment to reflect on this — and talk about it with your team.”
Parikh, a former Facebook executive, suggested other questions his new teams at Microsoft should ask themselves and discuss:
- How can we deliver more value to a customer?
- How can they realize value sooner when trying a new feature or product?
- How can we help simplify things so a customer can understand our products better?
- How can we better understand their business priorities and problems and work backwards from that to build the right solutions?
- When we have an incident, how can we empathize better with the inconvenience we cause a customer?
‘Why / Why Not’
Parikh pointed out that Amazon employees “ask why, and why not, constantly.” Everyone in Microsoft’s CoreAI team can help the company deliver better products to customers, faster, by asking these questions, he said.
“There are good reasons why we do many things the way we do them, and the world we serve has high expectations of us,” Parikh wrote. “However, in this new world of Al and rapid world change, we need to not hold onto antiquated processes or tools.”
Parikh called on the organization to constantly focus on streamlining work by using AI, improving developer tools and productivity, and reducing time wasted in meetings and through slow processes.
“Asking why something is the way it is, or why it must be done at all, is an opportunity to deepen our understanding rather than just follow orders,” Parikh said.
‘Shipping confusion’
Parikh also called on his teams to clearly communicate the purpose behind their products and decisions.
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“As we build, I want teams to stay anchored in the why — why what we are creating matters to developers, customers, and the world,” he wrote. “It’s about telling a cohesive story that makes the value clear and compelling.”
Parikh asked the team to lead with a “problem statement, purpose, and a small number of clear outcomes” when it comes to communicating with customers.
“When we don’t explain why it matters, we’re not building — we’re just shipping confusion, one acronym or buzzword at a time,” Parikh said.
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