Latest news with #AmazonKey
Forbes
24-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Early Product Metrics
Pallishree Panigrahi is Head of Data & Insights at Amazon Key. In the early days of a new product, the numbers we track—the metrics—shouldn't be treated as verdicts. They're not there to crown your idea a success or condemn it as a failure. Early metrics are operational breadcrumbs—signals that reveal where users get stuck, what needs fixing and which assumptions need to be rethought. It's easy to confuse early signals with signs of success—especially when dashboards look great on the surface. I've seen this firsthand across multiple launches. On paper, a dashboard can look impressive: thousands of sign-ups, high activation rates, glowing ratings. But if you look closer, what seems like traction is often friction disguised as progress. One example: In our smart access platform, we initially tracked how many times drivers successfully unlocked gates. The numbers were big and reassuring—until we realized many of those 'successful' unlocks were the same frustrated driver clicking over and over because there was no clear confirmation the gate was open. This is why early metrics should be designed to help teams learn, not just look good in an investor update. Five Metrics Every Early-Stage Product Should Track I recommend every product team start with five foundational metrics. None of them declare success. All of them force you to ask better questions. 1. Time To First Value (TTFV) How quickly does a user reach their first meaningful outcome? For an e-commerce platform, it's not when someone signs up, it's when they successfully place an order and receive their first product without issues. This metric reflects how smooth your onboarding, product discovery and checkout experience really are. If users don't get to value quickly, they often don't come back. 2. Activation Rate What percentage of new users hit a milestone that proves they've engaged meaningfully? A good activation metric might be: User adds an item to their cart and checks out within 24 hours of sign-up. This goes beyond passive browsing and captures real purchase intent. A low activation rate could point to friction in product search, unclear pricing, or trust barriers at checkout. 3. Repeat Usage In A Short Window Do users come back quickly to do the same task again? Traditional retention metrics are often too broad or slow to reveal early signals of value. Instead, track whether people return in seven or 14 days to do the same task again. Repeated use in context is a stronger indicator of product-market fit than one-time curiosity. 4. Top Drop-Off Point Where in the journey do most users abandon the process and why? It's not enough to know your overall conversion rate. Pinpoint whether users are dropping off at the product page, after adding to cart or during payment. For instance, a high abandonment rate at checkout could reveal trust issues, hidden costs or UX problems with the payment flow. 5. Qualitative Feedback Volume And Themes What are users telling you, in their own words about what's not working? Numbers show you what happened, but feedback tells you why. Categorize support tickets, surveys and reviews into clear themes. Often, your biggest opportunity hides inside the smallest complaints. These metrics aren't permanent. As your product matures, they should evolve with it. But picking the right metrics is only half the challenge, what really matters is how you interpret them. Discovery Metrics Vs. Validation Metrics One of the most common traps is treating early metrics as validation—proof that your idea is working. But discovery metrics have a different purpose: They break your assumptions so you can build the right thing faster. I ask three questions to tell them apart: 1. Is this metric helping us learn, or is it just there for reporting? 2. What decision will this help us make in the next sprint? 3. Is it tied to a hypothesis we're testing? Daily active users (DAUs), for example, often look like success. But if people aren't completing meaningful tasks, those DAUs are empty calories. A stronger early signal might be the percentage of users who complete a workflow without retrying or contacting support. Discovery metrics influence what you build next. Validation metrics only reassure you that everything's fine. Metrics guide better decisions only if they're designed well. That's where the VET framework comes in. The VET Metrics Framework To design metrics that matter, I use what I call the VET Metrics Framework. It's a simple test: • Value: Does this metric reflect an outcome that matters to users or the business? Counting clicks or pageviews doesn't help if nobody is completing the core task. • Evolvability: Can the metric adapt as your product matures? A KPI that only works in a beta test will quickly become obsolete. • Trustworthiness: Does this metric produce actionable insight? For example, average session time is ambiguous—longer isn't always better. You need clarity, not just data. When we built early KPIs for Amazon Key, we didn't settle for tracking how many times someone pressed the unlock button. We measured the percentage of deliveries completed without intervention—a metric that showed whether the system was truly solving the access problem. Of course, tracking progress is only useful if you're focused on solving the right thing. So how do you know you are? Five Ways To Know If You're Solving The Right Problem No single metric can answer this question, but you can triangulate using five lenses: 1. Repeated Use In Context: Are people coming back to solve the same problem? 2. Feedback Alignment: Do users describe the value in their own words the way you intended? 3. Problem Substitution: What old workaround did your product replace? 4. Tolerance Of Friction: Do users keep going even when parts of the experience are clunky? 5. Value Hypothesis Testing: Can you validate demand and usability before building everything out? These signals give you a clearer picture of real-world fit. Even with the right metrics and mindset, it's easy to fall into common traps, especially when data looks deceptively positive. Measurement Traps That Sink Early Products Even experienced teams fall into familiar pitfalls: • Tracking What's Easy, Not What Matters: Just because you can measure it doesn't mean it helps. • Measuring Too Much, But Learning Too Little: A crowded dashboard is usually a sign of unclear priorities. • Overvalidating And Underexploring: Early KPIs should challenge your assumptions, not confirm them. • Lagging Indicators Masquerading As Insight: NPS and 30-day retention are too slow to guide early decisions. • Ignoring Qualitative Feedback: Pair behavioral data with user comments to see the full story. If your metrics are only telling you everything is fine, you're not measuring deeply enough. Early metrics should make you a little uncomfortable. That's their job. They exist to surface what's not working so you can fix it before you scale. This week, take a fresh look at your dashboard—not just for trends, but for blind spots. If your metrics aren't teaching you something new, you're not measuring deeply enough. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
The Verge
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Amazon Key Access Control system
Amazon Key is coming to apartment buildings. is a new building intercom solution that uses the Ring app to let apartment dwellers answer their building door and buzz people in on their phones. The intercoms need to be installed by a property manager, and the system includes virtual keys for communal spaces; keys for individual apartments aren't mentioned. Interestingly, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff left Amazon to run a smart building access solution, but he's now back at Amazon. 1/4 Image: Amazon
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon Introduces New Key Access Control System for Multi-Family Properties
Amazon Key Access Control System provides secure, convenient, affordable building access for residents, staff, visitors, and delivery drivers. SEATTLE, June 10, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon today announced the Amazon Key Access Control System—a lineup of customizable, property access solutions for multi-family buildings and gated communities. Amazon Key streamlines deliveries and building access, giving customers control over who can enter their property, or letting them answer their building's front door, from anywhere. The new Key Access Control System provides secure, convenient, and affordable ways for residents and staff to easily manage access, buzz themselves or visitors into a property, and verify visitors in the Ring app before granting them access. "Amazon Key has helped customers avoid missed orders and deliveries with secure, customer-managed access to homes and garages for several years now," said Kaushik Mani, director of Amazon Key. "Our new Access Control System takes this to the next level, introducing a range of new tools and options designed for property managers and residents who live in multi-family buildings and gated communities. It provides building managers and residents with a range of modern, digital tools that enable them to conveniently and securely manage access to buildings and homes, so they can verify visitors and staff, accept deliveries, and even get takeout dropped off—all via the Ring app. It's a whole new level of convenience." Convenient and Secure Building Access With property owners prioritizing smartphone-based control and the growing demand for smart security solutions, Amazon Key addresses pain points of traditional building intercoms by adding essential features like online access management, remote control via smartphone and virtual keys. The Amazon Key Access Control System includes four different solutions—each of which is professionally installed to allow for quick, easy entry into the building. With each solution, customers gain the ability to admit visitors from anywhere using the Ring app, auto-access for authorized delivery drivers, and there's also an easy online management portal for property managers. For residents, the experience is simplified by reducing the need for traditional building access fobs or keycards with smartphone access. The four different solutions include: Virtual Key: A simple upgrade to a property's existing intercom that allows residents to gain self-entry or grant visitors access through the Ring app. Virtual Key does not enable video-based functionality. Intercom Boost: A small tag that you can add to an existing call box that enables visitors to view a resident directory and initiate one-way video and two-way audio calls with residents via smartphone. Intercom Lite: Includes the same functionality of Intercom Boost, but is offered by itself for buildings without an existing call box, or an addition to an existing one. Intercom Plus: A sleek, touchscreen-based solution that allows visitors to browse the resident directory or enter building access codes directly on the screen. "We chose the Amazon Key Access Control System because it offered an affordable, modern replacement for aging intercoms, which have become increasingly expensive and difficult to maintain," said Gabriel Siegal, EVP and Head of Asset Management at Charney Property Management, a top-ranked owner-operator and third-party management firm which participated in the Amazon Key Access Control System pilot program. "The interface has elevated the tenant experience while also streamlining our building operations. Contractor access is now seamless—we issue secure codes instead of solely relying on physical keys or lockboxes, and package delivery flow has dramatically improved, keeping building lobbies clear and organized. We prioritize simplicity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness across all our properties, and Amazon Key Access Control System delivers on all fronts. It has been a valuable addition across our portfolio." Availability The Amazon Key Access Control System Virtual Key and Intercom Lite are available for order today. Intercom Boost and Intercom Plus will be available this summer. For more information on installing Amazon Key Access Control System at your property, contact our sales team for a detailed quote. Property managers and owners interested in learning more about the Amazon Key Access Control System can see live demonstrations at the Amazon booth (#2049) at Apartmentalize in Las Vegas from June 11-13. For more information about the Amazon Key Access Control System, visit About Amazon Key Amazon Key empowers customers to easily manage access to their homes and businesses. Since 2017, Amazon Key has been solving access and delivery challenges, beginning with providing access to unused parking spaces in downtown Seattle garages, to scaling to multifamily properties for Amazon deliveries and third-party services like Grubhub. Today, Amazon Key unlocks doors more than 4 times per second across 10 countries, empowering customers to easily manage access to their homes and businesses. Whether streamlining deliveries, giving customers control over who can enter their property, or letting them answer their building's front door from anywhere, Amazon Key technology puts security, convenience, privacy, and access control in customers' hands. Amazon Key products currently serve single-family homes, multi-family properties, and commercial businesses across four continents. 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Business Wire
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Amazon Introduces New Key Access Control System for Multi-Family Properties
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon today announced the Amazon Key Access Control System—a lineup of customizable, property access solutions for multi-family buildings and gated communities. Amazon Key streamlines deliveries and building access, giving customers control over who can enter their property, or letting them answer their building's front door, from anywhere. The new Key Access Control System provides secure, convenient, and affordable ways for residents and staff to easily manage access, buzz themselves or visitors into a property, and verify visitors in the Ring app before granting them access. 'Amazon Key has helped customers avoid missed orders and deliveries with secure, customer-managed access to homes and garages for several years now,' said Kaushik Mani, director of Amazon Key. 'Our new Access Control System takes this to the next level, introducing a range of new tools and options designed for property managers and residents who live in multi-family buildings and gated communities. It provides building managers and residents with a range of modern, digital tools that enable them to conveniently and securely manage access to buildings and homes, so they can verify visitors and staff, accept deliveries, and even get takeout dropped off—all via the Ring app. It's a whole new level of convenience." Convenient and Secure Building Access With property owners prioritizing smartphone-based control and the growing demand for smart security solutions, Amazon Key addresses pain points of traditional building intercoms by adding essential features like online access management, remote control via smartphone and virtual keys. The Amazon Key Access Control System includes four different solutions—each of which is professionally installed to allow for quick, easy entry into the building. With each solution, customers gain the ability to admit visitors from anywhere using the Ring app, auto-access for authorized delivery drivers, and there's also an easy online management portal for property managers. For residents, the experience is simplified by reducing the need for traditional building access fobs or keycards with smartphone access. The four different solutions include: Virtual Key: A simple upgrade to a property's existing intercom that allows residents to gain self-entry or grant visitors access through the Ring app. Virtual Key does not enable video-based functionality. Intercom Boost: A small tag that you can add to an existing call box that enables visitors to view a resident directory and initiate one-way video and two-way audio calls with residents via smartphone. Intercom Lite: Includes the same functionality of Intercom Boost, but is offered by itself for buildings without an existing call box, or an addition to an existing one. Intercom Plus: A sleek, touchscreen-based solution that allows visitors to browse the resident directory or enter building access codes directly on the screen. 'We chose the Amazon Key Access Control System because it offered an affordable, modern replacement for aging intercoms, which have become increasingly expensive and difficult to maintain,' said Gabriel Siegal, EVP and Head of Asset Management at Charney Property Management, a top-ranked owner-operator and third-party management firm which participated in the Amazon Key Access Control System pilot program. 'The interface has elevated the tenant experience while also streamlining our building operations. Contractor access is now seamless—we issue secure codes instead of solely relying on physical keys or lockboxes, and package delivery flow has dramatically improved, keeping building lobbies clear and organized. We prioritize simplicity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness across all our properties, and Amazon Key Access Control System delivers on all fronts. It has been a valuable addition across our portfolio.' Availability The Amazon Key Access Control System Virtual Key and Intercom Lite are available for order today. Intercom Boost and Intercom Plus will be available this summer. For more information on installing Amazon Key Access Control System at your property, contact our sales team for a detailed quote. Property managers and owners interested in learning more about the Amazon Key Access Control System can see live demonstrations at the Amazon booth (#2049) at Apartmentalize in Las Vegas from June 11-13. For more information about the Amazon Key Access Control System, visit About Amazon Key Amazon Key empowers customers to easily manage access to their homes and businesses. Since 2017, Amazon Key has been solving access and delivery challenges, beginning with providing access to unused parking spaces in downtown Seattle garages, to scaling to multifamily properties for Amazon deliveries and third-party services like Grubhub. Today, Amazon Key unlocks doors more than 4 times per second across 10 countries, empowering customers to easily manage access to their homes and businesses. Whether streamlining deliveries, giving customers control over who can enter their property, or letting them answer their building's front door from anywhere, Amazon Key technology puts security, convenience, privacy, and access control in customers' hands. Amazon Key products currently serve single-family homes, multi-family properties, and commercial businesses across four continents.
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why E-Commerce Companies Should Focus On Improving Their Last-Mile Delivery Experiences
Ram Nikhil Dodda is Head of Product Management for Amazon Key. From clothing to electronics, millions of packages are shipped each day globally. In its 'Global Parcel Shipping Index,' which examined 2022 data from 13 countries, Pitney Bowes, a company that offers mailing and shipping solutions, found that in that year, 'global parcel volume reached 161 billion.' That's 'equivalent to 5,102 parcels shipped every second.' Additionally, Pitney Bowes predicted that by 2028, 'parcel volume will most likely reach 225 billion.' That projection is not surprising, given the extremely high rates of online shopping. Consider data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which revealed that 'the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2024, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, was $308.9 billion.' And that's just in the United States. As people shop online, they have expectations about deliveries. For instance, according to a 2024 report by global consulting firm AlixPartners, U.S. consumers 'want home delivery within 3.5 days.' If a retailer doesn't provide that, 'around 25% will shop elsewhere.' Consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to online shopping. Providing seamless last-mile delivery experiences to consumers is no longer an option. For their e-commerce companies to stand out and win consumers' business, leaders must focus on improving their last-mile delivery experiences. To start improving their last-mile delivery experiences, e-commerce teams should prioritize several key metrics. There are two broad groups of key metrics—customer-facing and operational. On the customer-facing front, there are three crucial metrics. First, there's the on-time delivery rate, which is linked to delivery promise (the commitment a company makes to a customer) and delivery window (the expected timeframe for a package to arrive). Essentially, e-commerce companies need to deliver orders within the timeframes they've promised. The tighter the delivery window, the more challenging it is to meet that expectation. Some e-commerce companies have more precise delivery windows than others, sometimes narrowing them down to the hour. To improve on-time delivery rates, e-commerce leaders should set realistic delivery promises and delivery windows. Then there is the order accuracy rate, which refers to getting the right items to customers. Order accuracy is a big driver of customer satisfaction. Getting the wrong item can derail a customer's plans. Finally, there's the first-attempt delivery rate, which is whether or not the delivery is made on the first try. This is another important driver of customer satisfaction, as it's a hassle for people to reschedule or arrange to retrieve missed deliveries. As for operational metrics, there are three main ones. First, there's the delivery defect rate, which refers to the percentage of orders that don't reach customers as planned due to late deliveries, incorrect or defective items or issues such as theft. For a good e-commerce experience, customers should receive a correct, undamaged product on the first delivery attempt. Moreover, delivery defects can have serious financial repercussions for e-commerce companies. Next, there's the cost per delivery rate. On a basic level, e-commerce companies should strive to minimize costs relative to their package volume. The last key operational metric e-commerce leaders should focus on is driver productivity, which includes measuring average deliveries per route, total distance traveled, time spent on each delivery and the rates of successful first-time deliveries. To be able to deliver on key metrics, e-commerce companies should focus on building several customer-facing and internal features. Arguably, the most important customer-facing feature is real-time order tracking. Consumers expect to know where their packages are at any given moment. Supply chain platform Verte's 2022 survey revealed that 91% of U.S. consumers ''actively track their packages.'' Related to real-time order tracking? Automated delivery updates. Overwhelmingly, customers want to know where their packages are at any given point in time. In the Verte survey, 82% of U.S. consumers expressed 'high or very high expectations for accurate delivery information when tracking their packages through an app.' Flexible delivery options are another important feature that e-commerce companies should offer. Many people want control over when they receive their packages—according to McKinsey research published in 2025, 'more than 50 percent of survey respondents place importance on being able to schedule deliveries.' Finally, many consumers seek convenient pickup locations, and e-commerce companies should secure strategic partnerships that give customers more choices. A 2024 study by Retail Economics and InPost, a parcel locker delivery service, found that 52.8% of consumers in the United Kingdom 'have used a delivery locker at least once.' Internal features are the foundation of e-commerce companies' ability to power better last-mile delivery. For one, e-commerce companies should improve drivers' access to buildings, namely, gated communities and apartment buildings, in order to reduce the chances of late or missed deliveries. Address validation is another crucial feature drivers need for accurate deliveries. Finally, features that enable secure, seamless delivery options, such as drivers being able to quickly leave packages in a preferred area (such as the mailbox versus the front porch for smaller items or delivering more expensive items inside the garage instead of on the front porch) can help reduce damage and theft. Some e-commerce companies, of course, rely on delivery partners, such as national postal carriers. When choosing partners, they should screen for capabilities and look for opportunities to collaborate in these areas. Implementing the metrics and features mentioned above is only one part of the equation. E-commerce leaders need strategic, data-driven approaches to their last-mile delivery operations to truly optimize performance and customer satisfaction. A key mistake e-commerce leaders should avoid is failing to weave in last-mile delivery planning into their businesses from day one. The longer they wait to do so, the more challenging it becomes to seamlessly integrate new features into their existing infrastructures. Leaders should also avoid adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to last-mile delivery. Last-mile delivery strategies should be tailored to local conditions, such as building types and population density. Whether rolling out a strategy as a whole or a new feature, e-commerce companies should prioritize testing it in one area and then iterate so the feature can work in other areas. Finally, e-commerce leaders should invest in the data infrastructure to regularly track key metrics and customer feedback—and take action as needed. Ultimately, it's through iterating that e-commerce leaders can continuously improve last-mile delivery experiences for their customers. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
