The Value Flywheel Effect

Power the Future and Accelerate Your Organization to the Modern Cloud

David Anderson, Mark McCann & Michael O'Reilly

Praise for this book

If you wish to survive and thrive in this fourth industrial age, if you wish to understand the landscapes you are competing in, if you wish to understand how modern practices will change your organization, then I would recommend that you read and study this book carefully.
Simon Wardley, Creator of Wardley Maps
A big part of my job has been to try to explain and apply the ideas developed at Netflix and Amazon to other organizations and applications, big and small. This book is the best distillation of how to do that, that I’ve encountered.
Adrian Cockcroft, former VP of Amazon Sustainability Architecture
The ideas in The Value Flywheel Effect amount to a kind of ‘survival handbook’ for the next decade or two. The Value Flywheel Effect is essential reading for any leader or practitioner who wants to help their organization to survive and thrive.
Matthew Skelton, coauthor of Team Topologies and Remote Team Interactions Workbook
I’m delighted to see that David, Mark, and Michael have taken the time and considerable trouble to explain how they architected and delivered serverless innovation at Liberty Mutual. Why? because change is the only constant, and the pace of technology innovation is accelerating this change. As J.F. Kennedy said ‘those that look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future’. This book is required reading if you want to leverage serverless technology.
Dr. Jacqui Taylor, CEO and cofounder FlyingBinary
Packed with real-world examples, case studies, and practical tools applied to complex domains, The Flywheel Effect is required reading to plot your future and the business you want to be.
Barry O'Reilly, cofounder of Nobody Studies and author of Unlearn and Lean Enterprise
The Value Flywheel Effect is a great foundation for any organization on a modern cloud journey. Based on how it’s applied in the real world, to real problems, there are great insights into how to navigate waves of change.
Seamus Cushley, VP Product Development, Bazaarvoice

AboutDetailsDownloads

Achieve rapid acceleration and transformation with the Value Flywheel Effect.

Today, every business is a technology business; every leader is a technology leader. As we enter this new era, organizations must learn to harness technology to drive innovation and power change. In The Value Flywheel Effect, David Anderson, Michael O'Reilly, and Mark McCann enable leaders to create an adaptive organization built upon embracing strategic thinking, team focus, and reduced time to value to drive business results and navigate a migration to the modern cloud.

Using Wardley Mapping and other sense-making approaches, The Value Flywheel Effect helps organizations anticipate market changes and user needs. As the flywheel starts to turn, each small win builds momentum. This continuous momentum builds situational awareness, breaks new boundaries, and catapults companies to sustainable, long-term success.

Learn to understand and utilize the sociotechnical intersection between business, technology, and people with The Value Flywheel Effect. Give your organization the edge it needs to navigate future challenges and build maximum velocity.

What's inside

Create an Adaptive Organization — The waves of change never stop. The only way to survive them is to create an adaptive, sensemaking organization that's ready to pivot to the rough seas ahead. Wardley Mapping and the Value Flywheel help you achieve this.
Harness Technology to Drive Change — Don't just lift and shift your datacenter to the cloud. Learn how to truly harness the power of technology by bringing alignment to the business and IT.
The Modern Cloud — The next best action organizations can take is to build serverless-first systems in the cloud. This book shows you how.
Includes Real-Life Stories — Real-life case studies showing the success of the Value Flywheel from BBC, Liberty Mutual Insurance, A Cloud Guru, and Workgrid.

Publication Date: November 29, 2022
Pages: 320
Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches
ebook ISBN: 9781950508587
Topics: Leadership · Software Delivery & Architecture
Formats: audio · epub

In the libraryThe Value Flywheel Effect Reader's GuideOpen →In the libraryThe Value Flywheel Effect - ExcerptDownload →In the libraryAudiobook CompanionOpen →In the libraryAudiobook ExcerptOpen →

About the authors

3 authors

David AndersonArchitect, G-P/Globalization Partners

Affiliation as of 2026-07-24

David Anderson has been at the leading edge of the technology industry for twenty-five years. Starting as a Software Engineer in leading telecom companies (including Three, Nokia, and Ericsson), David moved to Liberty Mutual in 2007 and continued to drive technology change and raise engineering standards. As Director of Technology, David had exposure to a wide range of technologies and techniques covering Architecture, Software Development, Leadership, AI/Analytics, and Cyber-Security. David was involved in the early phases of Public Cloud adoption at Liberty Mutual in 2013 and continued to drive the change. Creating the Serverless-First strategy in 2016, he was able to achieve significant, multi-million dollar business results, create a new, industry-leading engineering standard within Liberty and to lead a generation of architects to become cloud leaders in their own right. David is also a member of the Wardley Mapping community and has been involved in many efforts, discussions, and sessions/research groups to further this strategic approach. In 2021, David parted from Liberty Mutual to explore the serverless first journey across the industry and joined BazaarVoice as Technical Fellow. The Serverless Edge was formed to collate some of this thinking and he continues to work with clients and partners to prove out the thinking in this book.

Talks by DavidAll 5 →

32 min

Accelerating Towards Serverless-First with the Value Flywheel Effect

Amsterdam 2023

26 min

Creating the Value Flywheel Effect

Las Vegas 2022

30 min

Mapping the Value Flywheel Effect

Virtual US 2022

Everything by David Anderson →

Mark McCannEnterprise Architect, EverQuote

Affiliation as of 2026-09-07

Mark McCann is a Cloud Architect and leader focused on enabling organizations and their teams to rapidly deliver business value through well-architected, sustainable, serverless-first solutions. Mark joined Liberty Mutual as a graduate in 2000, enjoying a 21-year career rising to Senior Architect. Mark was heavily involved with Liberty Mutual's journey to the cloud, with a strong focus on adoption of serverless first, the well-architected framework, engineering excellence, and enabling teams to improve their time to value. Mark leverages Wardley Mapping to bring situational awareness to people, teams, and organizations, and to help them evolve and deliver sustainable, long-term value. Mark lives in Belfast, Ireland, writes for the The Serverless Edge, and can be found on Twitter @MarkMcCann and LinkedIn @markedwardmccann.

Talks by Mark