In this post, I explore the discipline and power of narrative writing — a practice I embraced during my time at Amazon and AWS, where written documents are the backbone of decision-making. I contrast that with the slide-driven cultures I’ve encountered since, where PowerPoint often replaces clear thinking with performance theater. Drawing from Jeff Bezos' love for The Elements of Style (a 1938 guide to crisp, jargon-free writing), I unpack why writing forces clarity, levels the playing field, and leads to better ideas and decisions. I explain why "pre-reads" fail, how live reading and annotation drive engagement, and why written narratives expose truth in ways slides never can. If your team can’t write it down, they probably don’t understand it well enough yet. This post is a call to replace the deck with substance — to choose clarity over charisma, and writing over theatrics.
Over the years, I’ve worked across vastly different company cultures — from Amazon and AWS, where the written narrative is sacred, to organizations such as Microsoft, Cisco, and a few startups where PowerPoint is the de facto language of business.
At Amazon, I learned about and became an evangelist for the power of a well-written narrative and a meeting culture that created space for internalizing written narratives as decision-making tools in our product ideation, operations, and business planning. It was not an easy muscle to build. I’d previously spent many years down the PowerPoint rabbit hole, but once I clicked with the discipline, it was tough to look at PowerPoint.
And I’ll be honest: since leaving Amazon, I’ve found it hard to deprogram teams i work with from their addiction to slideware. Slides aren’t inherently evil; visual storytelling has its value. However, I’ve increasingly become convinced that PowerPoint, as used in most companies, actively undermines critical thinking.
One of Jeff Bezos’s favorite books, which he encouraged Amazon employees to read, is *The Elements of Style* by William Strunk Jr., first published in 1938. Although it is a short book, its message is timeless: clear, concise writing reflects clear thinking. Bezos believed that effective writing requires eliminating jargon, acronyms, and overly complex language, as these elements can obscure meaning and prevent others from grasping the core idea. At Amazon, this principle was not merely a stylistic choice but a strategic approach. By simplifying language, you clarify thoughts, sharpen logic, and make ideas accessible to everyone in the room. This practice fosters alignment and helps scale practical thinking across teams.
At Amazon, narrative writing isn’t optional. You walk into a meeting, and the first 20 minutes are spent silently reading a six-page document. Everyone in the room starts with the same information. There’s no grandstanding, no performative Q&A- just the work laid bare.
In a previous post, “How Amazon Uses Mechanisms to Hone Efficiency and Execution with the PRFAQ,” I wrote about the precision culture this discipline fosters. Narratives are not side notes; they are the work.
They demand clarity of thought. You cannot disguise your way through a written narrative. If your reasoning is weak, it is evident. If you haven’t considered trade-offs, they become glaringly obvious. Writing is thinking — in slow motion.
They level the playing field. Not everyone is comfortable “on stage.” I always cringed when someone would say after a meeting, “You showed up well, and your executive presentation presence is strong.” Why? Because some of the best product thinkers I’ve worked with are quiet, methodical, and thoughtful. A well-structured narrative allows them to shine without relying on flashy selling.
They expose the core quickly. Slide decks are often designed to persuade rather than inform. They lead, spin, and cherry-pick. A narrative, by contrast, must stand on its own. There’s no magician behind the curtain — only substance.
In “ How Amazon Uses Mechanisms to Hone Efficiency and Execution with the WBR” I delve deeper into how this practice operates and how it influences decision-making. This isn’t merely a quirk of culture — it’s a mechanism for high-quality thinking.
Many companies believe that simply sharing a document before the meeting is sufficient — a check-the-box exercise labeled “pre-read.” However, let’s be honest: those documents are rarely read.
People are busy. They skim. They plan to read it the night before but often don’t. And even when they do read it, they seldom come prepared with thoughtful feedback.
That’s why, at Amazon, we didn’t assume people had read it beforehand. We made time for the meeting. We would block off the first 20–30 minutes for silent reading. Everyone reads the exact words simultaneously, with fresh focus and shared context.
Even better? The document would often be shared via a live link — Amazon Workdocs, Office 365, Google Docs, etc. — with commenting enabled. People could add in-line questions, reactions, or suggestions in real time. Others could respond, and the author could clarify. The discussion would become grounded in the document — not determined by the loudest voice in the room.
This approach ensures that feedback is authentic, contextual, and directly tied to the content. It is neither performative nor vague or rushed.
So, if you want honest, high-quality feedback, don’t bury your narrative in someone’s inbox. Instead, make reading and reviewing a live, shared part of the experience.
The culture of slide decks has trained us to prioritize performance over precision. We tailor our content for the room, simplify complexity, and hide nuance behind bullet points.
Worse yet, we fall in love with aesthetics: the animations, the hero images, and the catchy taglines. However, ideas do not improve simply by looking better.
Some of the worst strategic decisions I’ve observed were made from beautiful decks that lacked thoughtful consideration.
We’ve cultivated a generation of knowledge workers who fear paragraphs and are allergic to detail. And we wonder why our strategies are shallow, our features fail to resonate, and genuine innovation feels uninspired and elusive.
A grand narrative isn’t just a communication tool; it’s also a decision-making tool. When you compel yourself (or your team) to write something down — whether it’s a product pitch, a new feature proposal, or a startup idea — you clarify assumptions, expose risks, organize thinking, highlight dependencies, and tell a complete story. Most importantly, you enable others to engage deeply with your thoughts and not merely react to your performance.
This aligns with something I discussed in “The Five Stages of Product Leadership”: connecting the dots from start to finish and making them straightforward to others is a key differentiator. It’s not extra work; it is the work.
I understand. Not every company is Amazon, and I’m not suggesting that every meeting should begin with six pages and 20 minutes of silent reading. However, if your teams can’t write, they probably can’t think clearly. And if your big ideas only work on slides, then they don’t. So, begin small.
1. Ask for one-pagers before making big decisions.
2. Encourage teams to write FAQs.
3. Swap the “deck” for a live document in your next pitch meeting.
4. Block time for reading and annotating it together.
Because when we choose writing, we choose depth over drama. We choose clarity over charisma. We choose substance over show. That’s how great products, teams, and companies are built in the long run.
If you or your organization needs help and guidance on how to roll out a narrative discipline, please reach out to me at info@bodhiventurelabs.com
