Challenge Identification

As Product Owner for our e-commerce platform's core product service handling 47+ million daily requests, I recognised the significance of concerns raised by our backend development team during a technical review. Following their identification of high operational costs and architectural inefficiencies, I took ownership of validating and championing the business case for change.

Through technical analysis and cross-functional stakeholder interviews, I discovered that 98% of expensive API Gateway usage was internal, confirming a fundamental architectural misalignment that was significantly impacting our operational efficiency and scalability.

What I Delivered:

Business Case Development

• Built comprehensive ROI analysis demonstrating 87% potential cost reduction through architectural optimisation

• Secured cross-functional buy-in from IT, Finance, and department leads through evidence-based business case

• Defined clear success metrics: £80K annual savings, improved performance, and reduced system complexity

• Engaged DevOps to provide detailed cost metrics from AWS Cost Explorer, translating technical insights into business-impact KPIs

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Product Strategy

• Prioritised direct database access for internal clients to achieve immediate 98% cost reduction on internal traffic

• Roadmapped data model optimisation strategy for long-term scalability and performance improvements

• Planned phased migration approach for 10+ consuming teams ensuring minimal business disruption

• Consolidated infrastructure from 3 different stacks (CDK, Terraform, CloudFormation) into a single, maintainable approach

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Cross-Functional Coordination

• Facilitated solution review meetings between solution architects, developers, and business stakeholders

• Identified and managed cross-tribe dependencies across 8+ consuming services (Web, Mobile, Checkout, Gateway, Wishlist)

• Coordinated backward-compatibility strategy to minimise disruption during migration phases

• Secured £60K project approval from IT Director and COO through comprehensive business case presentation

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Requirements & Documentation

• Created detailed technical requirements documentation ensuring full traceability across all workstreams

• Developed effort estimation framework enabling accurate planning across multiple teams and service owners

• Established clear ownership model for product data fields and API structures

• Managed complex dependency mapping between PIM package, Gateway, and frontend services

• Coordinated spike investigations to quantify savings opportunities and validate feasibility

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Success Metrics:

• £80,089 annual cost savings via elimination of unnecessary Lambda, API Gateway (98% reduction) usage for internal traffic validated via AWS cost explorer

• 81% reduction in data storage costs through optimised schema design

• Improved developer productivity via simplified deployment processes and clearer documentation

• Enhanced system scalability supporting 5x future traffic growth with lower latency

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Phase 1 Completion:

• Successfully completed comprehensive discovery, business case development, and stakeholder alignment within 6 weeks

• Delivered approved technical roadmap and migration strategy with full cross-functional sign-off

• Secured budget approval and established clear project governance structure

• Created detailed migration documentation and technical guides for client teams

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Project Status:

• Project paused due to organisational resource constraints following successful completion of planning and approval phases. All foundational work completed enables rapid execution once capacity becomes available, with technical solution validated and stakeholder buy-in secured.

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Key Skills Demonstrated:

• Product Strategy • Stakeholder Management • Data-Driven Decision Making • ROI Analysis • Change Management • Cross-Functional Collaboration • Technical Requirements Management • Business Case Development