When I ask clients to picture cloud cost optimization, they think dashboards, policies, maybe a clever right-sizing purchase.
What they don’t picture?
Meetings. Misunderstandings. Mistrust.
To avoid FinOps failures, we need a new starting line; one that gets to the root of spend misalignment.
The Hidden Layer Of Cloud Spend
A swift tug at the backstage curtains reveals teammates who rarely act like a team.
I’ll give you three pain points to address:
- The perceived engineering paradox: “It’s design vs the bottom line.“
- Finance teams need enablement sessions clarifying how cloud maps to invoices. Without that, their goals and engineering’s rarely meet.
- Product teams who prefer to outsource cost optimization. This can lead to a break in cross-team accountability.
Sweet and short: this cultural misalignment is the silent cloud cost.
The Painful Path Cultural Misalignment
Here are the symptoms I often see:
- Weeks of feature rework because cost alerts didn’t include the right team
- Finance teams rejecting forecasting models they don’t trust and drilling teammates for details
- Engineers disengaging during FinOps meetings because they feel blamed
These issues have real cost for the company in the form of low morale, missed savings, churn, and burnout.
Here’s Your ‘Winning From Day 1’ Plan
The most successful teams I work with implement my “Three Things” during the first month of onboarding:
- Host a “cloud philosophy” session. First, align on what cloud value means across functions. Cost comes later — clarity on value brings alignment.
- Create a shared language document. What’s “waste”? What’s “investment”? Build your own definitions that can be understood across teams.
- Co-build a Joint Success Plan. Co-create it. Ownership = buy-in.
What’s A Joint Success Plan?
Wait — what’s a Joint Success Plan? A Joint Success Plan (JSP) is a shared action plan that ensures both sides work together toward the same definition of success.
For example, A software company CTO and a client agree to four training sessions for engineering & product to help them fully adopt the tool within three months.
In this line of our JSP, we’ve outlined five important aspects that directly influence outcomes:
- Establish an ROI goal: e.g. full adoption of tool
- Implement a timeline: e.g. three months
- Assign stakeholder(s): e.g. CTO
- Clarify action Item(s): e.g. four training sessions
- Identify participants: e.g. engineering, product
Put that on repeat for your big goals, gain team buy-in, and see FinOps In action!
Why Cultural ROI Matters
In my own FinOps work, I’ve found that cultural transparency leads to faster savings.
At CloudZero, we’re doubling down on onboarding with:
- Cultural / FinOps assessments
- Enablement Office Hours
- Onboarding that includes Product, Engineering, and Finance — everyone walking toward the same horizon.
- Our CloudZero Academy — with multiple lessons throughout for a range of personas:.
Start with clarity, conversation, and collaboration. Adopt a new mantra: This is more than my house. This is our house!
Let’s Grow Together
- Follow me on LinkedIn for FinOps insights and behind-the-scenes moments
- Subscribe to FinOps in Full Bloom — our podcast on cloud, culture, and cost wins
Drop a comment to [email protected] — share your journey, your pivots, your wins. Let’s build this community.
The Cloud Cost Playbook
The step-by-step guide to cost maturity
