Seeing the whole picture
Seeing the whole picture
Mapping the first end-to-end view of the AWS Outposts customer experience
Mapping the first end-to-end view of the AWS Outposts customer experience
Amazon
2024
tldr
tldr
Product
Product
AWS Outposts
AWS Outposts
Role
Role
Customer experience lead
Customer experience lead
Problem
Problem
After a major re-org, there was no shared understanding of the full Outposts customer journey, where the biggest friction lived, or what should be improved first.
After a major re-org, there was no shared understanding of the full Outposts customer journey, where the biggest friction lived, or what should be improved first.
Outcome
Outcome
I created the first end to end CX foundation for Outposts by mapping the full customer lifecycle, auditing key workflows and surfaces, and identifying the highest leverage usability and service gaps to inform future roadmap decisions.
I created the first end to end CX foundation for Outposts by mapping the full customer lifecycle, auditing key workflows and surfaces, and identifying the highest leverage usability and service gaps to inform future roadmap decisions.
Overview
Overview
A new org and a new role
A new org and a new role
In the summer of 2024, I landed under new leadership with a radically different charter: own the entire end-to-end Outposts customer experience.
Everything…ordering, tracking, installation, migration, usage, return.
That meant I had to quickly understand a large, messy ecosystem. Products, internal teams, handoffs, backend dependencies, customer pain points, and a lot of institutional knowledge living mostly in people’s heads.
In the summer of 2024, I landed under new leadership with a radically different charter: own the entire end-to-end Outposts customer experience.
Everything…ordering, tracking, installation, migration, usage, return.
That meant I had to quickly understand a large, messy ecosystem. Products, internal teams, handoffs, backend dependencies, customer pain points, and a lot of institutional knowledge living mostly in people’s heads.
Problem
Problem
No one had the full picture
No one had the full picture
Outposts is not a simple software product. It spans hardware, cloud infrastructure, logistics, installation, migration, operations, and returns.
Customers experience it as one journey, but internally it was fragmented across multiple teams, tools, and ownership boundaries.
That made it hard to answer basic but important questions. Where are customers getting stuck? What parts of the experience are actually usable? What should be fixed first?
Without a shared map, teams were making siloed decisions without a clear view of the full customer experience.
Outposts is not a simple software product. It spans hardware, cloud infrastructure, logistics, installation, migration, operations, and returns.
Customers experience it as one journey, but internally it was fragmented across multiple teams, tools, and ownership boundaries.
That made it hard to answer basic but important questions. Where are customers getting stuck? What parts of the experience are actually usable? What should be fixed first?
Without a shared map, teams were making siloed decisions without a clear view of the full customer experience.
Discovery
Discovery
Looking beneath the surface
Looking beneath the surface
I started by mapping the current Outposts journey across five stages: ordering, tracking, unboxing, installation, and return. For each stage, I documented touch points, personas, AWS services, and known pain points.
I started by mapping the current Outposts journey across five stages: ordering, tracking, unboxing, installation, and return. For each stage, I documented touch points, personas, AWS services, and known pain points.
I went a layer deeper and audited the workflow using internal documentation, training material, and tooling. I performed a heuristic review of the Outposts console to evaluate flows, interface patterns, and customer jobs to be done.
Then I led brainstorming workshops with cross-functional teams to map the current user flow, surface pain points across the ordering and installation experience, and generate ideas for how to solve them.
I also had an Outpost server delivered to my home so I could document the real-world experience from ordering and unboxing through launch and return.
Solution
Solution
Speaking with stakeholders
Speaking with stakeholders
As part of my research, I also interviewed stakeholders across the org.
What emerged was an experience held together by manual processes and a whole lot of faith.
Customers lacked basic metrics like packet loss for troubleshooting
Capacity increases and contract renewals were still fully ticket driven
One team described a 30 day connectivity outage at a major healthcare customer, made worse by missing diagnostic tooling
Meanwhile, Azure Local, Google Distributed Cloud, and Oracle Alloy were all moving toward simpler, more self serve experiences while ours remained operationally heavy
Together, these patterns gave us a shared view of what existed, what was broken, and where design could drive the most value first.
As part of my research, I also interviewed stakeholders across the org.
What emerged was an experience held together by manual processes and a whole lot of faith.
Customers lacked basic metrics like packet loss for troubleshooting
Capacity increases and contract renewals were still fully ticket driven
One team described a 30 day connectivity outage at a major healthcare customer, made worse by missing diagnostic tooling
Meanwhile, Azure Local, Google Distributed Cloud, and Oracle Alloy were all moving toward simpler, more self serve experiences while ours remained operationally heavy
Together, these patterns gave us a shared view of what existed, what was broken, and where design could drive the most value first.
Impact
Impact
A foundation, not a finish line
A foundation, not a finish line
This work helped turn a vague charter into something actionable. Instead of talking abstractly about “improving Outposts CX,” we had a concrete view of the customer lifecycle, the most painful touch points, and the highest leverage opportunities.
Key success metrics:
• Over 20 priority roadmap opportunities identified across the Outposts lifecycle
• Console audit surfaced 80+ usability issues
• Installation walkthrough identified over 30 friction points that fed into our Q4 roadmap
This work helped turn a vague charter into something actionable. Instead of talking abstractly about “improving Outposts CX,” we had a concrete view of the customer lifecycle, the most painful touch points, and the highest leverage opportunities.
Key success metrics:
• Over 20 priority roadmap opportunities identified across the Outposts lifecycle
• Console audit surfaced 80+ usability issues
• Installation walkthrough identified over 30 friction points that fed into our Q4 roadmap
Reflection
Reflection
Knowing which direction to row
Knowing which direction to row
Before I could improve the customer experience, I had to make it visible so the team knew where to steer.
If I were doing it again, I’d bring product and engineering into the journey mapping earlier. It would have likely become a stronger decision making tool from the start.
That said, I'm proud of where our team landed.
Before I could improve the customer experience, I had to make it visible so the team knew where to steer.
If I were doing it again, I’d bring product and engineering into the journey mapping earlier. It would have likely become a stronger decision making tool from the start.
That said, I'm proud of where our team landed.
Working on this project is a reminder that sometimes the most important design decisions happen below the surface. The banner is simple.
The hard part is the metadata schema underneath it, and getting hundreds of service teams to describe their features the same way. It's a systems problem.
When should a recommendation appear? When should it stay quiet? When should it never come back? Those decisions get made in the schema, not the UI.
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