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6 minute read

Best Practices for Product Teams

Why FinOps Matters for Product Teams

The Growing Complexity of Cloud Costs

Cloud-native environments have transformed how organizations build and manage applications, bringing greater scalability, flexibility, and speed. Yet, this progress comes with a challenge: managing product related cloud costs is more complex than ever. Variable pricing and usage-based billing often surpass the capabilities of traditional product planning and budgeting, leaving teams struggling to make sense of their expenses.

For Product Managers and product teams, this complexity adds pressure to better balance performance, reliability, and cost. It’s now critical to understand how product and engineering decisions, big and small, affect cloud spending in the aggregate. Tomorrow’s winners will figure out how to deliver value while keeping products financially sustainable, while losers will watch their cloud and Kubernetes costs grow perpetually, even as they shed customers and resources.

The Role of Product Teams in FinOps

Product teams sit at the vital and visible crossroads of engineering, finance, and leadership, giving them a unique role in shaping cloud cost drivers and outcomes. While PMs are tasked with delivering value to customers by executing the product roadmap, they must also ensure their products remain financially sustainable, and in many cases, that they perform to expected profitability levels. Achieving this balance requires working cross-functionally, setting shared goals with a collective understanding, and making data-driven decisions to improve both performance and cost efficiency.

Key FinOps Best Practices for Product Teams

Embed Cost Awareness into Product Management and Development

Cost awareness should be integrated into every stage of product management and development, from early design and architecture mapping, to sprint planning and product roadmapping. Considering cloud spending early in the modern software product lifecycle enables product teams to spot inefficiencies and address them before they become larger issues.

For example, teams can prioritize design decisions that improve scalability and efficiency, reducing waste and laying the groundwork for sustainable growth. Teams can adopt good asset tagging hygiene and consistent ownership and observability practices that pay huge dividends later when tasked with measuring and optimizing cloud and Kubernetes costs.

Leveraging tools that reveal the budgetary impact of often complex technical choices further empower teams to make informed decisions and forecast fiscal impact. These insights help optimize resource usage and align technical efforts with financial objectives, ensuring cloud spending supports the organization’s broader goals now and into the future.

Leverage Tools and Metrics for Real-Time Insights

Real-time metrics and shared visibility into those metrics are essential for effectively monitoring and managing cloud costs. Tracking key indicators like cost-per-transaction, utilization rates, and workload efficiency provides product teams with a clear view of cloud usage and the correlation to spending. This data helps uncover trends, identify anomalies, and highlight areas that need improvement.

With these real-time insights, cross-functional teams can take proactive steps to reduce waste and boost efficiency. For example, identifying an underutilized or orphaned resource early allows for reallocation or remediation, preventing unnecessary expenses from piling up while still meeting performance goals.

Foster Collaboration Across Teams

Collaboration is key to effective FinOps and Product Management practices. Product teams play a crucial role in connecting engineering and finance, ensuring priorities and goals are aligned. By creating a shared language, a common workbench, and promoting mutual understanding, all FinOps stakeholders can work together seamlessly toward a common set of goals leveraging a common set of metrics and KPIs to guide them.

For example, involving engineering teams in cost discussions often uncovers opportunities to optimize resources. At the same time, finance teams gain a clearer understanding of the technical factors driving cloud expenses. This collaboration improves decision-making, strengthens relationships between departments, and fosters a more unified and less siloed organization. Conversely, edicts handed to developers to cut Kubernetes costs without the benefit of discussion can lead to stability and performance impacts that hurt the customer and the business.

Real-World Applications of FinOps in Product Teams

Identifying and Reducing Wasteful Spend

Waste often stems from over-provisioned resources and infrastructure that is unneeded or long forgotten. By regularly monitoring usage patterns, product teams can spot these inefficiencies and act. Decommissioning unused infrastructure or right-sizing resources to match demand can significantly reduce costs without affecting performance. Product teams can introduce efficiency practices into the engineering cadence working alongside development teams and leaders.

Automating Resource Allocation

Automation plays a critical role in scaling efficiently. Tools like Kubernetes auto-scaling adjust resources in real time based on demand, eliminating the need for constant manual oversight. By embedding automation into development and deployment processes, product teams can allocate resources more effectively, minimize waste, and improve scalability.

The Intersection of Product Management and FinOps Principles

Shared Values: Collaboration, Transparency, and Value Optimization

FinOps principles naturally align with effective product management and vice versa. Both focus on collaborative decision-making, clear reporting, and delivering value for customers and the organization. Product and FinOps teams can embrace these shared principles to achieve better outcomes while keeping customer satisfaction at the forefront.

Building a Culture of Cost Efficiency

Promoting cost awareness throughout the organization fosters efficiency and accountability. Product managers can lead by displaying real examples of cost-conscious decision making and highlighting the factors that lead to success. For instance, sharing case studies on resource optimization or presenting clear cost savings achieved through teamwork can inspire others to adopt similar strategies. Highlighting these tangible results provides a roadmap for integrating cost-efficiency into everyday practices, improving financial performance, and strengthening the organization’s overall effectiveness.

Practical Takeaways and Next Steps

Actionable Steps for Product Teams

Getting started does not have to be overwhelming. Sure, there is a lot of complexity and moving parts when it comes to optimizing Kubernetes costs, but prioritization and slow steady progress will yield results. Below are some actionable steps to consider taking:

  • Monitor Cloud Usage Patterns: Use Kubernetes and cloud monitoring tools to track resource consumption across teams and services. Regularly review usage data to identify inefficiencies, such as underutilized resources or anomalous usage (and cost) spikes.
  • Set Cost Alerts: Configure automated alerts at key budget thresholds, such as 40%, 60%, and 80% of your monthly allocation. Early warnings help teams identify and address anomalies before they show up on your monthly bill.
  • Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration: Schedule regular meetings involving engineering, finance, along with technical and finance leadership to align on cost objectives. Shared dashboards can make these discussions more productive by providing data-driven insights and actionable recommendations.
  • Promote Data Transparency: Introduce centralized reporting tools that offer all teams access to consistent and up-to-date cost and usage information. Transparency fosters accountability and enables smarter, data-informed decision-making across the organization. It also helps to frame goals around realities when it comes to expected savings or tradeoffs.
  • Implement Incremental Changes: Start with simple, impactful adjustments like right-sizing resources or retiring unused infrastructure. As teams see measurable benefits, gradually expand optimization efforts, cultivating a culture of continuous improvement and cost awareness.
  • Celebrate Progress and Wins: Kubernetes cost optimization can feel like a second job on top of the work Product Managers and Development Teams already undertake. Be sure to celebrate and bring visibility to the results you achieve; it may be the fuel needed for teams to reach that next efficiency milestone.

Leveraging FinOps Tools and Resources

Kubecost offers powerful tools to help product teams achieve deeper visibility into Kubernetes costs and make informed decisions based on real-time data. With our Kubernetes cost monitoring tools, you can track and manage cloud expenses with precision. Access our Docs Site to learn more about optimizing your workflows and connect with peers and experts through the FinOps Slack community. These resources provide practical strategies to improve cost efficiency and enhance your understanding of FinOps principles.

Conclusion

Product teams are at the forefront of driving cloud cost efficiency. By integrating FinOps best practices, adopting the right tools, and fostering cross-functional collaboration, they can create significant value for their customers while ensuring financial sustainability. Take the first step toward better cost management by exploring Kubecost’s solutions or join one of our upcoming webinars to gain actionable insights and start your journey toward smarter cloud spending.

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