The Value Flywheel Effect: A Modern Cloud Strategy • David Anderson & Charles Humble

The Value Flywheel Effect focuses on creating long-term value through four key phases: Clarity of Purpose, Challenge, Next Best Action, and Long-term Value

Code should be viewed as a liability rather than an asset - the goal is to write the right code, not just more code. This mindset shift enables teams to focus on business value rather than technical complexity

A serverless-first approach paired with infrastructure as code can dramatically increase development speed while reducing operational complexity and costs

Platform engineering and developer enablement are critical - teams need clear building blocks, golden paths, and automation to move quickly while maintaining quality and security

Psychological safety and an environment that encourages experimentation, disagreement and learning is essential for driving organizational change

Wardley Mapping is a powerful technique for understanding value chains and making strategic technology decisions, particularly around build vs buy and identifying capabilities

The Well-Architected Framework provides important guardrails around security, reliability, performance and cost optimization while still enabling team autonomy

Success requires both strong engineering excellence and the ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes and value creation

Change management works best through showing concrete results quickly rather than long presentations - “show don’t tell”

Platform teams should focus on enablement rather than control, working alongside development teams to understand their needs and create better processes