Amazon Working Backwards PRFAQ - Innovation Accelerator

Blog post description.

BEHIND THE BUILD

7/30/20261 min read

white concrete building during daytime
white concrete building during daytime

Most organisations try to change behaviour. Amazon designs environments.
I saw this first-hand at the Amazon Innovation Accelerator.

Yes, there are processes.
Working backwards. (No - not being rude, this is what they call it.)
Starting with the press release.
Designing from the customer outcome.

But what really stood out wasn’t the process. It was the system.

Walking through the fulfilment centre, you realise every movement, every decision, every action is carefully thought through and very intentional. Designed to achieve something specific.

And it made me think about something I keep coming back to: we often try to change behaviour… without changing the environment that produces it.

You see it everywhere. I've done it everywhere. In CX - I've focussed on improving journeys without going right back to basics and changing the conditions that shape them. In products I've focussed on driving engagement without redesigning what’s easy. And in learning I've tried to increase focus without questioning the environment we’ve created.

But behaviour isn’t the starting point.
It’s the output.
Change the environment, and behaviour follows.

For me that summarises Acorn Studio Press (drop the mic moment if you didn't recognise it!). I'm not asking young people to cram more facts into their brain, or parents to learn the intricacies of whatever they're learning in maths these days so that they can tutor their children in maths. I'm asking all of us to give children the environment to think, to formulate opinions and to just synthesise what they do know.

But that's not just a children in learning perspective. So the real question becomes what are we making easy, and what are we making hard?

Explore

hello@acornstudiopress.com

+44 7356 234765

© 2026 Acorn Studio Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Connect
Follow us
Learn
Legal

Proudly registered in the UK as Acorn Studio Press Ltd. Company No. 16717513
Registered Office: Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall Industrial Estate, Suffolk, IP28 7DE
hello@acornstudiopress.com