The Challenge
During a backend performance review for a leading eCommerce platform, we uncovered critical inefficiencies in how internal systems communicated, resulting in excessive service traffic and inflated infrastructure costs. The service processed millions of daily requests, but most were redundant internal calls that created unnecessary load and spend.

My Role & Approach
I led the end-to-end case for change, analysing cloud usage patterns with engineering and DevOps to uncover inefficiencies and model an 80%+ cost-reduction opportunity.

I translated technical findings into clear commercial impact, building an ROI model that secured buy-in from Finance, IT and senior leadership.

Once approved, I defined the roadmap:

• Redesigned service interactions to reduce redundant traffic

• Simplified database structures to cut storage costs

• Consolidated infrastructure to improve maintainability and control

• Established governance to embed cost-aware design principles

With eight product teams involved, I coordinated architecture reviews, mapped dependencies, and delivered a backward-compatible rollout plan that minimised disruption and aligned everyone around shared commercial goals.

The Outcome
✓ 80% reduction in redundant internal traffic
✓ 70% lower infrastructure costs (annualised)
✓ 81% smaller data storage footprint
✓ 5× scalability headroom for future growth
✓ Cross-tribe alignment across Product, Web, Mobile, and Platform squads