Gamifying FinOps (And CloudZero) For Better Adoption

In our increasingly online world, managing cloud, AI, and other tech spend has shifted from a good idea to an absolute necessity.

But even when cost management is a priority, how do you get busy development teams and engineers actively engaged in the new practices?

New initiatives are often viewed as more work on the team’s plate, which is an understandable deterrent to adoption. That leaves FinOps proponents struggling to get others on board.

Luckily, I believe the answer to the problem is relatively simple: gamification. My work at CloudZero revolves around helping our customers progress on their journeys toward FinOps mastery, and games are one of my favorite (and most successful!) tactics. It’s a fantastic team-building exercise and an opportunity to bridge finance and engineering operations.

Intrigued? I hope so! Here’s my take on how gamifying the FinOps and CloudZero onboarding experience accelerates adoption and turns daunting tasks into fun challenges.

Gamifying FinOps Is Fun (And More Effective Than You Might Think)

FinOps proponents — the dedicated folks trying to instill a cost-conscious culture in their companies against all odds — have historically faced an uphill battle.

My colleague, Larry Advey, who joins me in this conversation, knows the struggle all too well. Larry previously spearheaded a massive onboarding effort at his last company that ultimately brought over 600 new people to FinOps. He did that through sheer hard work, making sure people were onboarded properly, gathering their perspectives and feedback, iterating, and continually providing answers and assistance.

Larry’s efforts highlight that traditional FinOps onboarding methods often require immense effort and diverse thinking, not to mention resources. We realized that if we could inject some competition and fun into the process, we could accelerate the whole experience and make it more enjoyable for everyone involved.

We discovered that gamification is a great way to bring people into a FinOps mindset faster and encourage everybody within the company to make the initiative a priority.

It’s important to note that the goal of our gamified approach isn’t to pit people against each other. On the contrary, we want to incentivize collaboration. The point is to turn the usual adoption hurdles into an exciting event that brings teams together.

We found that when a person actually presses the buttons, moves their mouse around, and clicks on stuff, the knowledge tends to stick in their minds. It’s a heck of a lot more effective than forcing everyone to watch introductory videos for hours on end.

Larry will back me up here when I say that letting people actually use our CloudZero tools, figure things out, and maybe even struggle a little bit (in a controlled scenario) helps them learn through experimentation and exploration. In Larry’s own words: “Being curious, asking questions, and making discoveries while being supported while making errors is an effective way to learn.”

This is so important to us because learning how to manage cloud costs is no longer optional for most businesses. It’s a strategic necessity. Teams that don’t learn this now are going to find themselves struggling more and more to stay competitive as costs rise and AI makes the whole playing field more uneven and complex.

For those dedicated FinOps proponents who have convinced their company leaders to invest in CloudZero, our Capture the Flag event is kind of an “easy button.” After they’ve put their heart and soul (and a value, right-sized piece of their budget) into pitching a cost management solution, the last thing we want is for the platform to end up as “shelfware” that sits unused. In other words, this speeds up implementation and adoption.

By gamifying the adoption process, we remove the burden FinOps proponents face of constantly trying to get everyone on board. Instead, we provide an easy, streamlined way to get teams engaged with a relatively tiny time commitment.

What to expect from our CloudZero Capture the Flag event

Our version of Capture the Flag (CTF) is an immersive, game-like event that makes learning about FinOps and CloudZero competitive and fun. It’s structured to be engaging and hands-on throughout the whole experience. (Translation: There are no boring intro videos to endure. )

The CTF event begins when participants all log into our CloudZero training environment. This gives them direct, hands-on experience with the platform within the confines of a safe space where they can’t accidentally, for instance, delete all their company’s cost data or create a bunch of tags with the wrong naming conventions.

The entire session occurs over about an hour and a half. Again, this is a far cry from the usual multi-day time commitment needed for watching videos and combing through endless website resources.

At the core of the game lie structured challenges. We designed five modules featuring challenges that award various points based on difficulty. These challenges require participants to sleuth around within the system and find “flags” — which are answers to specific, cost-related FinOps questions — by navigating the CloudZero platform.

We encourage competition with a live scoreboard and awards. The thrill of earning points and seeing where you stack up adds a little urgency and makes the whole learning process a lot more fun.

Those who earn fifty points or more unlock the Cloud Cost Optimization certificate.

We often incentivize participation in other ways as well. For instance, we love the “lunch and learn” format where we provide meals or DoorDash gift cards. (As my mom always says, “With food, you can conquer the world.”)

Come for the FinOps onboarding, stay for the team bonding opportunities

Imagine a team where some members are completely new to FinOps concepts, while others are already familiar. In a traditional setting, this knowledge gap can be challenging.

In our CTF event, we often see the more experienced team members go above and beyond to help the beginners. Both sides gain new skills and increase their FInOps fluency, but they also strengthen their relationships with one another in the process.

Plus, there’s nothing like a little bit of friendly competition to encourage new connections. There’s a wonderful psychological effect that happens downstream when you bring people together for a fun, challenging event where they have to work together to accomplish goals. These connections last well beyond the end of the event and can change the whole workplace environment for the better.

Real-world results we see clients achieve from our CTF event

Your team will get out of this experience what they put into it. But in general, you can expect:

Ready To Gamify Your Company’s FinOps Journey?

All you have to say is, “Hey, I found a really fun way to get everyone involved in using our new cost management platform. It’s an easy way to boost engagement, and as a bonus, top performers will earn new certifications.”

Since you’re essentially laying out a nearly effortless pathway toward competence and cost savings — and because the alternative is doing all the heavy lifting using tons of manpower and resources — your C-Suite will likely sit up and take notice.

From there, all your team has to do is play the game, enjoy, and learn helpful FinOps concepts in the process!

Contact CloudZero to set up your gamified onboarding event, or to see if it’s the right solution for your needs.

Author: Umesh Rao

Umesh Rao is Director of Technical Enablement at CloudZero,. He brings decades of expertise across Automation, Observability, Security, and FinOps, including over a decade shaping high-impact SaaS initiatives. He is recognized for using creative gamification strategies to accelerate adoption and make technical enablement more engaging. Outside of work, Umesh is an avid world traveler who has explored more than 120 countries — and is on a mission to visit them all.