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Panos Panay

👤 Speaker
678 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

Like, this is very, very, it's like simple to say, but it's a powerful concept. What does willing to be wrong mean? It means you got to put your ego aside. You got to be vulnerable. Like, do you know how hard that is? Like in front of a team of thousands of people, like just, yep, I was wrong. And what does being wrong mean? It's not like this dramatic, I'm wrong, I'm sorry. That's not it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

Like, this is very, very, it's like simple to say, but it's a powerful concept. What does willing to be wrong mean? It means you got to put your ego aside. You got to be vulnerable. Like, do you know how hard that is? Like in front of a team of thousands of people, like just, yep, I was wrong. And what does being wrong mean? It's not like this dramatic, I'm wrong, I'm sorry. That's not it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

What being wrong, it's not necessarily the wrong statement. It is the, you got new information a week later, then use the information. And if it was a two-way door decision, guess what? Make the right decision.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

What being wrong, it's not necessarily the wrong statement. It is the, you got new information a week later, then use the information. And if it was a two-way door decision, guess what? Make the right decision.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

What being wrong, it's not necessarily the wrong statement. It is the, you got new information a week later, then use the information. And if it was a two-way door decision, guess what? Make the right decision.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

But if you're not a great leader, you don't change that decision because you're like, I already made the call, sorry, but you knew it wasn't right for the customer or for the business or whatever the reason. It's just a fail. And this was very early in my career. It's very similar to the two-way door, one-way door. Once you've made the hard call and you're past the point of return, that's it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

But if you're not a great leader, you don't change that decision because you're like, I already made the call, sorry, but you knew it wasn't right for the customer or for the business or whatever the reason. It's just a fail. And this was very early in my career. It's very similar to the two-way door, one-way door. Once you've made the hard call and you're past the point of return, that's it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

But if you're not a great leader, you don't change that decision because you're like, I already made the call, sorry, but you knew it wasn't right for the customer or for the business or whatever the reason. It's just a fail. And this was very early in my career. It's very similar to the two-way door, one-way door. Once you've made the hard call and you're past the point of return, that's it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

You made the call and you have to make decisions sometimes. Man, and those are hard. Like you lose sleep over it. Like when I made the decision to have the event, Yeah. We're doing it. And we're like, well, product's not 100% done. I go, doesn't matter. I'm at 90% usage. We're going. And everyone's like, you realize that, and that was a two-way door decision, until I send out the invites.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

You made the call and you have to make decisions sometimes. Man, and those are hard. Like you lose sleep over it. Like when I made the decision to have the event, Yeah. We're doing it. And we're like, well, product's not 100% done. I go, doesn't matter. I'm at 90% usage. We're going. And everyone's like, you realize that, and that was a two-way door decision, until I send out the invites.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

You made the call and you have to make decisions sometimes. Man, and those are hard. Like you lose sleep over it. Like when I made the decision to have the event, Yeah. We're doing it. And we're like, well, product's not 100% done. I go, doesn't matter. I'm at 90% usage. We're going. And everyone's like, you realize that, and that was a two-way door decision, until I send out the invites.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And so we checked the information the day before we sent out the invites. They're like, we're going. The minute you send the invites, that's a one-way door decision. There's no pulling back. It didn't matter how sick I was. You know, it doesn't matter who couldn't make it. It didn't, none of it mattered.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And so we checked the information the day before we sent out the invites. They're like, we're going. The minute you send the invites, that's a one-way door decision. There's no pulling back. It didn't matter how sick I was. You know, it doesn't matter who couldn't make it. It didn't, none of it mattered.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And so we checked the information the day before we sent out the invites. They're like, we're going. The minute you send the invites, that's a one-way door decision. There's no pulling back. It didn't matter how sick I was. You know, it doesn't matter who couldn't make it. It didn't, none of it mattered.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And, you know, then now we're lining it up, lining, you know, we had the venue booked and we're like, okay, that wasn't a one-way door decision. You can always cancel the venue. Not cool. But if you had to, you know, and you kind of go through it and then you go, you get to that point. Yep. That's it. There's no new, there's no new information that was going to change it. And so great leaders are,

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And, you know, then now we're lining it up, lining, you know, we had the venue booked and we're like, okay, that wasn't a one-way door decision. You can always cancel the venue. Not cool. But if you had to, you know, and you kind of go through it and then you go, you get to that point. Yep. That's it. There's no new, there's no new information that was going to change it. And so great leaders are,

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

And, you know, then now we're lining it up, lining, you know, we had the venue booked and we're like, okay, that wasn't a one-way door decision. You can always cancel the venue. Not cool. But if you had to, you know, and you kind of go through it and then you go, you get to that point. Yep. That's it. There's no new, there's no new information that was going to change it. And so great leaders are,

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

They'll make those decisions, but they'll always be willing. They'll always be willing to check themselves and not just check themselves, but be willing then when they have new information, if the right decision is in front of them, you gotta change it. And I always live by it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

They'll make those decisions, but they'll always be willing. They'll always be willing to check themselves and not just check themselves, but be willing then when they have new information, if the right decision is in front of them, you gotta change it. And I always live by it.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul

They'll make those decisions, but they'll always be willing. They'll always be willing to check themselves and not just check themselves, but be willing then when they have new information, if the right decision is in front of them, you gotta change it. And I always live by it.