Question: RISE Applied to Amazon Travel
Explore how to apply the RISE framework to assess Amazon's expansion into online travel bookings. Understand market realities, economics, and strategic fit, and learn to make clear, defensible recommendations by thinking beyond features toward ecosystem and business model value.
Interview question
Should Amazon expand Prime services into online travel bookings? Evaluate the opportunity and make a recommendation.
This question tests your ability to build a strategic, GM-level business case for entering a new market. By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:
Apply the RISE framework to evaluate a large expansion opportunity.
Analyze market realities, economics, strategic fit, and execution risk.
Make a clear, defensible recommendation to executives.
Move beyond feature-thinking into ecosystem and business model thinking.
This is a classic “Should we enter this new market?” question. The quality of your reasoning is more important than the final yes or no answer.
Scenario overview
Your interviewer asks:
Should Amazon expand Prime services into online travel bookings? Evaluate the opportunity.
They want to see whether you can:
Think at the ecosystem scale.
Assess market timing, competitive landscape, and risk.
Link the opportunity to Amazon’s core strengths and weaknesses.
Communicate a clear, structured recommendation.
Weak PMs ...