About the Book
Achieve rapid acceleration and transformation with the Value Flywheel Effect.
Today, every business is a technology business; every leader is a technology leader. As we enter this new era, organizations must learn to harness technology to drive innovation and power change. In The Value Flywheel Effect, David Anderson, Michael O'Reilly, and Mark McCann enable leaders to create an adaptive organization built upon embracing strategic thinking, team focus, and reduced time to value to drive business results and navigate a migration to the modern cloud.
Using Wardley Mapping and other sense-making approaches, The Value Flywheel Effect helps organizations anticipate market changes and user needs. As the flywheel starts to turn, each small win builds momentum. This continuous momentum builds situational awareness, breaks new boundaries, and catapults companies to sustainable, long-term success.
Learn to understand and utilize the sociotechnical intersection between business, technology, and people with the Value Flywheel Effect. Give your organization the edge it needs to navigate future challenges and build maximum velocity.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Adrian Cockcroft
Foreword by Simon Wardley
Introduction
Part I: Starting Our Journey
Chapter 1: The Flywheel Effect
Chapter 2: Practices and Principles of Mapping
Chapter 3: Illustration of the Value Flywheel in Action
Part II: Phase One - Purpose and Vision
Chapter 4: Finding Your North Start
Chapter 5: Obsess over Time to Value
Chapter 6: Map the Market Competition
Chapter 7: A Cloud Guru Case Study
Part III: Phase Two - Challenge and Landscape
Chapter 8: Environment for Success
Chapter 9: Socio-Technical View of the System
Chapter 10: Map Your Org Capability
Chapter 11: Workgrid Case Study
Part IV: Phase Three - Today's Next Best Action: Serverless
Chapter 12: The Serverless Edge
Chapter 13: Frictionless Dev Experience
Chapter 14: Map Your Solution
Chapter 15: Liberty Mutual Case Study
Part V: Phase Four - Long-Term Value
Chapter 16: Problem Prevention Culture through the Well-Architected Framework
Chapter 17: Future Trends and Sustainability
Chapter 18: Map the Emerging Value
Chapter 19: BBC Case Study
Conclusion
Bonus: 100 Day Plan
Afterward: History of the Authors and Mapping
Resources
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
About the Author :
David Anderson has been at the leading edge of the technology industry for twenty-five years. Starting as a Software Engineer in leading telecom companies (including Three, Nokia, and Ericsson), David moved to Liberty Mutual in 2007 and continued to drive technology change and raise engineering standards. As Director of Technology, David had exposure to a wide range of technologies and techniques covering Architecture, Software Development, Leadership, AI/Analytics, and Cyber-Security. David was involved in the early phases of Public Cloud adoption at Liberty Mutual in 2013 and continued to drive the change. Creating the Serverless-First strategy in 2016, he was able to achieve significant, multi-million-dollar business results, create a new, industry-leading engineering standard within Liberty Mutual and to lead a generation of architects to become cloud leaders in their own right. David is also a member of the Wardley Mapping community and has been involved in many efforts, discussions, and sessions/research groups to further this strategic approach.
In 2021, David parted from Liberty Mutual to explore the serverless first journey across the industry and joined BazaarVoice as Technical Fellow. The Serverless Edge was formed to collate some of this thinking, and he continues to work with clients and partners to prove out the thinking in this book.
Mark McCann is a Cloud Architect and leader focused on enabling organizations and their teams to rapidly deliver business value through well-architected, sustainable, serverless-first solutions. Mark joined Liberty Mutual as a graduate in 2000, enjoying a 21-year career rising to Senior Architect. Mark was heavily involved with Liberty Mutual's journey to the cloud, with a strong focus on adoption of serverless first, the well-architected framework, engineering excellence, and enabling teams to improve their time to value. Mark leverages Wardley Mapping to bring situational awareness to people, teams, and organizations, and to help them evolve and deliver sustainable, long-term value. Mark lives in Belfast, Ireland, writes for the The Serverless Edge, and can be found on Twitter @MarkMcCann and LinkedIn @markedwardmccann.
Michael O'Reilly is a Software-Architect who specializes in arming organizations with the ability to develop ideas into world-class products by leveraging the capabilities of the modern cloud. Since 2005, Michael has devoted his career to enterprise application and service development. He was part of the team that led Liberty Mutual's foray into the world of e-commerce, building out their main online insurance product set. Being a progressive thinker, Michael became an active leader in Liberty Mutual's transition to the cloud. He has become specialized in leading teams and the C-suite into modern cloud product development through sustainable approaches and practices guided by serverless first and the well-architected framework. Michael continues to help organizations embrace the modern cloud as a Software Architect with Globalization Partners and as a contributor with The Serverless Edge.
Review :
“If you wish to survive and thrive in this fourth industrial age, if you wish to understand the landscapes you are competing in, if you wish to understand how modern practices will change your organization, then I would recommend that you read and study this book carefully.”
“...a big part of my job has been to try to explain and apply the ideas developed at Netflix and Amazon to other organizations and applications, big and small. This book is the best distillation of how to do that, that I've encountered.”
“The Value Flywheel Effect is a timely and hugely valuable book providing a set of principles and ways of working to navigate and exploit the fast-changing technology and business landscape. Without sensemaking capabilities, organizations are increasingly struggling to act effectively in the modern disruptive technology context, so much so that the ideas in The Value Flywheel Effect amount to a kind of ‘survival handbook' for the next decade or two. The Value Flywheel Effect is essential reading for any leader or practitioner who wants to help their organization to survive and thrive.”
“I'm delighted to see that David, Mark, and Michael have taken the time and considerable trouble to explain how they architected and delivered serverless innovation at Liberty Mutual. Why? because change is the only constant, and the pace of technology innovation is accelerating this change. As J.F. Kennedy said ‘those that look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future'. This book is required reading if you want to leverage serverless technology.”
“The future for company creation and innovation relies on speed, scalability, and sustainability. To nurture thriving products, organizations, and cultures, you need to understand the landscape you're competing in, along with the path to choose to succeed. Packed with real-world examples, case studies, and practical tools applied to complex domains, The Flywheel Effect is required reading to plot your future and the business you want to be.”
“The journey to the cloud is one of leadership and change management rather than purely a technical pathway. The Value Flywheel Effect is a great foundation for any organization on a modern cloud journey. Based on how it's applied in the real world, to real problems, there are great insights into how to navigate waves of change.”
“Serverless architecture combined with clarity of purpose is a lethal combination for winning in today's competitive landscape. The Value Flywheel Effect provides powerful insights on how you can leverage these modern practices to navigate an enterprise cloud transformation and accelerate the delivery of value.”
“Required reading for every level of an organization adopting modern cloud, and grounded in unparalleled lived experience of transformation. I'm sure I'll be referencing this for years”
“The Value Flywheel Effect shares a surprising collection of leadership and transformation practices that are sure to help you stir up the right kind of trouble, no matter where you are in the organization. Also an excellent reference for your Wardley Mapping practice, with helpful guidance, plenty of examples, and new things to try as well!”
“The Value Flywheel Effect presents a practical road map to innovation, focusing on a modernization strategy that takes full advantage of modern cloud capabilities. Engineers and their leadership will learn real-world techniques based on the authors' experience evolving a value-first approach at a Fortune 100 company to reinvent traditional enterprise development.”
