DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WITH AWS

Helping enterprise software companies modernize products, build on AWS, and create a path to market

Problem: Enterprises and independent software vendors were under increasing pressure to modernize products, reduce infrastructure costs, improve scalability, and respond faster to changing customer needs. Moving to the cloud, however, was not simply a technology migration. Companies needed to determine which products and IP were worth modernizing, how those products could take advantage of AWS capabilities, what changes were required to their existing technology and business models, and how the resulting solutions could be commercialized. AWS needed a repeatable way to help partners move from broad cloud transformation ambitions to defined product opportunities, business cases, and actionable roadmaps.

Role: Senior Creative Strategist at Indigo Slate’s Human Experience Innovation Studio. Advised AWS business strategy teams and designed the Digital Ideation & Envisioning Workshop series used within the Customer-as-a-Partner program to help enterprise customers and independent software vendors define product modernization opportunities and partnership strategies with AWS.

Outcome: Created a repeatable product transformation approach that helped AWS and its partners identify which products or IP to modernize, define future-state product opportunities, develop the business rationale, and create a roadmap toward building and commercializing solutions on AWS.

Context

Cloud adoption was changing how companies built, scaled, and delivered software. For established companies, the opportunity went beyond migrating existing products to the cloud. They needed to rethink how those products could be built, delivered, scaled, and commercialized using cloud capabilities.

AWS’s Customer-as-a-Partner (CaaP) program worked with enterprise customers and independent software vendors that wanted to evolve from being AWS customers into partners. The opportunity was to modernize existing products or intellectual property using AWS, create repeatable solutions, and potentially bring those solutions to market through AWS distribution channels.

The Digital Ideation & Envisioning Workshop series gave AWS and partner organizations a structured way to explore the “Art of the Possible,” then move from that future-state vision toward specific product opportunities, business rationale, and a path forward.

Impact

Helped enterprise customers and ISVs identify and prioritize products and IP with potential for modernization on AWS

• Connected business ambitions and product strategy with AWS platform capabilities and partnership opportunities

• Defined future-state product concepts, value propositions, and initial go-to-market assumptions

• Identified capability gaps, key activities, dependencies, responsibilities, and milestones required to move products toward implementation

• Created product transformation roadmaps that gave AWS and partner teams a shared direction for continued development and commercialization

Approach

Worked with AWS business strategy teams to understand the goals of the Customer-as-a-Partner and Product Modernization programs

• Designed the Digital Ideation & Envisioning Workshop series to move teams from business ambition to product opportunity, prioritization, and roadmap

• Helped partner teams evaluate existing products and IP against customer value, business potential, and opportunities enabled by AWS

• Guided teams in defining future-state products, value propositions, business rationale, and initial go-to-market approaches

• Identified gaps between the current and future state, including capabilities, dependencies, responsibilities, and milestones

• Synthesized the work into product transformation roadmaps that captured the opportunity, business case, product direction, and path forward

What I’d do next

Move the highest-priority product opportunities into deeper product and technical definition. This would include working with AWS and partner engineering teams to define the target architecture, integration and migration requirements, platform dependencies, and MVP scope. I would also validate the value proposition with customers and establish adoption, product, and commercial measures before moving toward launch.