In a recent episode of the FinOps Weekly Podcast, Larry Advey, an experienced FinOps practitioner and maintainer of the FOCUS specification, shared game-changing insights on collaboration that challenge conventional wisdom about working with different personas in organizations.
Whether you're struggling to get engineering teams on board with cost optimization or wrestling with multi-cloud cost visibility, this deep dive into FinOps collaboration strategies offers practical solutions you can implement immediately.
The Critical Role of Collaboration in FinOps
"Collaboration is of utmost importance and a key element as part of being a successful FinOps practitioner," Advey explains. The reality is that FinOps professionals work with an incredibly diverse ecosystem of stakeholders, even in small companies. You're constantly engaging with engineering, product, finance, procurement, and leadership teams—each with vastly different priorities and communication styles.
The challenge isn't just technical; it's deeply human. Engineers focus on shipping code, developing features, and fixing bugs. Finance teams concentrate on cutting costs, improving profitability, and managing budgets. These priorities often seem at odds, making effective communication crucial for FinOps success.
Understanding this dynamic is the first step toward building the collaborative relationships that make FinOps initiatives successful rather than just another corporate mandate that gets ignored.
Mastering FinOps Personas: Who to Approach and How
Engineering Teams: From Adversary to Ally
Here's where Advey's approach becomes truly counterintuitive. While most FinOps practitioners report that engineering teams are their biggest challenge, Advey finds them the easiest to work with. His secret? A fundamental shift in approach from telling to asking.
"If you propose it to them and ask them, or here's the data, what do you think about this? Do you notice anything with this? Rather than telling them, 'Hey, you've got a problem here, go fix this,' instead ask them, 'Do you see anything that could... can you explain this to me?'"
This approach works because it taps into what engineers naturally love: explaining their systems and showing off the cool stuff they've built. Instead of making them defensive, you're making them the expert in the conversation.
The key principles for engineering collaboration include:
Lead with curiosity, not criticism: Ask questions about their architecture and systems rather than pointing out problems
Make their lives easier: Provide specific tools, scripts, and clear guidance rather than vague mandates
Connect cost optimization to performance: Engineers care about efficiency and performance, which naturally aligns with cost optimization
Provide context and data: Show them the numbers and let them draw conclusions
As Victor Garcia, one of the podcast hosts, emphasized from his engineering background: "If you teach an engineer or show him or her how to do stuff, they will d...
