If leading Amazon Photos, would you implement more Amazon Photos editing features with higher processing needs, or maintain basic organization?

Introduction

The trade-off we're considering for Amazon Photos is whether to implement more advanced editing features with higher processing needs or maintain basic organization functionality. This decision involves balancing user experience, technical capabilities, and strategic priorities. I'll analyze this trade-off by examining product understanding, metrics, experimentation, and decision-making frameworks.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• Context: I'm thinking about the competitive landscape for photo storage and editing. Could you share insights on our main competitors and their feature sets?

Why it matters: Helps position our strategy relative to market leaders Expected answer: Google Photos and Apple Photos as main competitors with advanced AI features Impact on approach: Would influence whether we prioritize catching up or differentiating

• Business Context: Based on Amazon's ecosystem, I assume Photos integrates with Prime. How does Photos contribute to overall Prime retention and engagement?

Why it matters: Aligns product strategy with broader business goals Expected answer: Moderate impact on Prime retention, high engagement among subset of users Impact on approach: Would influence whether to focus on broad appeal or power user features

• User Impact: I'm curious about our user segments. What percentage of our users actively use editing features versus basic organization?

Why it matters: Helps prioritize features based on user behavior Expected answer: 20% use advanced editing, 80% basic organization Impact on approach: Would guide resource allocation between editing and organization features

• Technical: Considering the processing needs for advanced editing, what's our current cloud infrastructure capacity for handling increased computational load?

Why it matters: Determines feasibility and cost of implementing advanced features Expected answer: Sufficient capacity with some scaling needed Impact on approach: Would influence timeline and resource allocation for implementation

• Resource: How is our current Photos team structured in terms of ML/AI expertise versus general software engineering?

Why it matters: Assesses our capability to develop advanced editing features in-house Expected answer: Small ML team, larger general engineering team Impact on approach: Would determine whether to build, buy, or partner for advanced features