Amazon devices chief Panos Panay on the importance of failure and bouncing back from it

Key points

• Panay said founders must be willing to fail and learn from it to push boundaries.
• He described Microsoft's Surface RT launch as a significant failure that led to a nearly $1 billion write-down.
• Panay advised founders to keep their vision while adapting based on lessons learned.

Amazon executive Panos Panay told startup founders at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco that failure is an inevitable and required part of building a successful product. Panay, Amazon SVP of Devices, Alexa, and Leo, drew on his more than 19 years at Microsoft, where he experienced a costly failure.

He described the launch of the Surface RT, Microsoft's first tablet computer, as a significant failure during his tenure that ultimately led to a nearly $1 billion write-down.

What Panay said

Panay said founders must be willing to fail and actually go fail. He stated that if you haven't failed, you probably haven't pushed the boundary, and that it's about harvesting the lessons when you fail.

He recalled being on the front cover of a newspaper that simply said failure. He said the trick was to harvest the learnings and understand what happened, noting the failure wasn't that moment but decisions made two years before, such as incomplete software, wrong inventory, or retail balance.

You have to be willing to fail, and actually, not just willing, you actually have to go fail.

— Panos Panay

Learning from failure

Panay said founders need to understand what went wrong, avoid excuses, and accept the failure. He added that you take the failure but don't let go of your vision, noting that Surface has done pretty well.

He emphasized staying committed to a vision, learning from experience, and moving quickly. He said if you were learning, you change your vector, usually just 30 degrees, adapt your vision, and go, adding that some people hang on too long because they haven't accepted the moment of failure.