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When Jeff Bezos sent a simple email proposing a device you could talk to from across the room, most experts said it couldn’t be done. Far-field voice recognition was considered impossible. But impossible sometimes just takes a little longer at Amazon.

In this richly-detailed inside account, Al Lindsay—the first technical hire and former VP of Engineering for Alexa—reveals how Amazon built one of the fastest-growing consumer products in history. From renting houses across America to collect voice data, to solving seemingly insurmountable technical challenges, to scaling to hundreds of millions of users, Lindsay provides a master class in innovation, leadership, and building revolutionary products.

Drawing on his eight years leading the Alexa engineering organization, Lindsay shares:

How Amazon tackled “impossible” technical problems by breaking them into manageable piecesThe secrets to successfully managing distributed global teams across multiple time zonesKey strategies for reducing friction to drive massive user adoptionCritical lessons from strategic acquisitions and integrationAmazon’s unique playbook for achieving hyperscale

A Clear, Entertaining Guide on How to Build Great Technology Products and Teams

Practical, authoritative, and filled with unforgettable stories from the front lines of innovation, Building Alexa at Amazon is an essential playbook for anyone building transformative products or leading ambitious technical projects. It’s also a deeply human story about the team that created a product that changed how we interact with technology—and made the impossible inevitable.
As Al Lindsay himself explains:
“Building Alexa was the most challenging thing I have ever done. It was an immense technical effort. Building Alexa required us to learn to handle hyperscaling (0–100 million endpoints in a few years). We were “close to the Sun,” under perpetual review and scrutiny from Jeff Bezos. There was constant pressure to deliver more, faster. It was also very challenging from a professional development perspective and from a personal development perspective, pushing me out of all my comfort zones. Yet it was the most exhilarating, rewarding and fun time in my career, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

What Early Readers Are Saying:

“I was fortunate enough to be on this journey with Al. I saw first hand all the challenges and obstacles we faced and how we overcame them. This book is a very practical guide for the leaders that are building category-defining products that carry high innovation risks, integrating acquisitions, building world class global teams, solving hard technical problems and /or scaling the organization. These lessons from Alexa have been invaluable for me and countless others not only during our career at Alexa, but also in our roles since then. I highly recommend this book.

Manoj Sindwhani

Learn the lessons of scale and building breakout products from one of the few who have done it. Order your copy now.
Giving Back: All author and publisher proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to Ronald McDonald House, a charity that provides housing, support and other assistance to help families stay close to their children during hospital stays.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DWNFDR9Y
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Techquity (March 4, 2025)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 4, 2025
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 528 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 77 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B0DYYR8V92