AWS Partner Flywheel: Unlocking Your Business Potential

During my time building and scaling a Continuous Delivery on AWS consulting business, we developed a mechanism that I now refer to as the the AWS Partner Flywheel. This wasn’t created through formal design, but rather through our core principle of sharing knowledge, which we observed was driving momentum across our business. After reflecting on how these processes interacted, I realized that what we had built was a sustainable model for growth, which I am now codifying here as the AWS Partner Flywheel.

For AWS Partners, the principles behind the Flywheel can transform potential into measurable growth. This flexible mechanism works for businesses of any size, following an eight-step process—Learn, Do, Measure, Share, Validate, Sell, Iterate, and Operate—that creates a continuous momentum loop, driving sustainable expansion.

At our core, we integrated these principles into every business function—strategy, sales, marketing, delivery, and operations. This integration meant that the Flywheel was not a rigid formula but a dynamic model we adapted to fit each area’s needs. We applied each step flexibly, adapting to real-time business demands and customer needs. This approach allowed us to use the Flywheel steps to drive measurable results and scalable growth across the business.

Our business journey—from $1M to $15M in annual revenue within four years, bootstrapped for the first two years and the six years prior, and achieving AWS Premier Partner status—resulted from aligning core principles with how we delivered value to our customers on AWS. Here’s how each step in the Flywheel works together to fuel business success.

1. Learn: Developing or Refining Your Superpower

The Flywheel begins with learning—identifying your business’s superpower and understanding how AWS services complement your strengths and serves your customers. Our breakthrough came when we realized that our core strength and passion lay not just in Continuous Delivery and DevOps, but specifically in Continuous Delivery and DevOps on AWS for enterprises. AWS’s focus on automation and scalability perfectly aligned with our vision.

• Actionable Tip: Identify the AWS services best aligned with your strengths—for example, AWS CodePipeline, Lambda, and CloudFormation if automation is your focus.
• Focus on Your Superpower: Evaluate every opportunity against your identified strengths or superpower. If an engagement aligns, communicate how your expertise can deliver maximum value. If it doesn’t align, consider the impact on your business and your niche.
  • Saying No to Strengthen Your Niche: We began saying no to customers and referring them to other experts if their needs didn't align with our superpower. This wasn't about providing less; it was about being customer-obsessed by focusing on solutions within our realm of expertise. By concentrating on what we did best, we delivered greater value to our customers even when taking on fewer engagements.
• Stay Current: Continuously sharpen your skills through AWS Training, Certification, and enablement programs to ensure you stay competitive and adaptable.

2. Do: Applying Knowledge to Deliver Solutions

Knowledge alone isn’t enough—how you apply it defines your value. Our approach shifted when we started implementing what I refer to as the APS framework (Automation, Pipeline, Security), which enabled our customers to deploy and release software quickly, efficiently, and securely.

• Actionable Tip: Develop proof-of-concept solutions that showcase your expertise, such as Security or CI/CD pipelines using AWS Developer Tools and Security Services. If your superpower is in a specific industry like Financial Services, tailor solutions to meet sector-specific requirements.
• Outcome-Driven Delivery: Demonstrate the tangible benefits of your solutions, such as time savings, cost reductions, or improved performance.

3. Measure: Tracking Success with Data

What gets measured gets improved. We focused on tracking KPIs like deployment frequency, recovery times, and reduced manual efforts, which clearly demonstrated the ROI of our Continuous Delivery solutions for customers.

• Actionable Tip: Use tools like Amazon CloudWatch to monitor your performance and collect actionable metrics. Align KPIs with your niche—for example, lead time for changes if you focus on DevOps solutions.
• Data-Driven Storytelling: Use metrics to tell a compelling story that highlights the impact of your solutions for customers.

4. Share: Amplifying Your Success

Our commitment to knowledge-sharing fueled our growth. By publishing case studies, speaking at AWS events, contributing to open source, and sharing insights through blogs, we established ourselves as thought leaders and unlocked new opportunities. Success was defined by helping others—not by proving we were the smartest in the room.

• Actionable Tip: Use AWS Partner Marketing Central to share your customers' success stories through blogs, webinars, and case studies. Focus on the AWS services you used and the measurable outcomes achieved for customers.
• Reputation Building: Sharing success stories strengthens trust, attracts new customers, and reinforces relationships with existing ones.

5. Validate: Building Credibility through Validation

Validation through certifications, competencies, and customer testimonials builds trust and strengthens credibility. Earning AWS Competencies in key areas helped us differentiate ourselves with customers  and win new business.

• Actionable Tip: Pursue AWS Competency programs such as DevOps, Security, Financial Services, or Migration & Modernization Competencies to validate your expertise.
• Certifications: We achieved our goal of 100% team certification, with every member—including support staff—earning at least one AWS certification.
• Customer Testimonials: Collect and publish testimonials to build credibility and streamline your sales process.

6. Sell: Leveraging Results to Drive Sales

A significant portion of our business came via word-of-mouth and thought leadership. By demonstrating value in every engagement and sharing insights broadly, we cultivated a reputation that organically attracted new customers. Validated success drives sales momentum; our portfolio of case studies, endorsements, and AWS competencies created a compelling narrative that streamlined deal closures and expanded our customer base.

• Actionable Tip: Center your sales messaging around tangible outcomes that directly address common customer challenges. Share real-world success metrics and problem-solving case studies to resonate with prospects.
• AWS Sales Support: Use APN Customer Engagements (ACE) to boost sales, and work with AWS account managers and AWS Global Services (i.e., ProServe, Training & Certification, and Support) to uncover new opportunities.

7. Iterate: Linking and Strengthening the Flywheel

Iteration is essential—each step in the Flywheel informs and strengthens the next. For example, sales feedback can shape service improvements, and customer success stories drive future marketing efforts.

• Actionable Tip: Create feedback loops between your sales, delivery, and marketing functions to ensure continuous alignment and improvement.
• Self-Improvement: Use each iteration to address areas for improvement, enhance strategies, and reinforce the Flywheel.

8. Operate: Automating and Scaling Business Operations

Sustaining growth requires operational efficiency. We automated processes, from lead tracking to service delivery, which allowed us to focus more on innovation and customer engagement.

• Actionable Tip: Automate operations using AWS services like Lambda, Step Functions, and S3.
• Technology: We began using SaaS services for all of our Operations functions when they were still nascent in the minds of many business owners at the time. Now, I am strategically leveraging AI to startup my business.
• Hiring: Embed this approach in your hiring process—evaluate candidates on their ability to learn something new, implement it, share their knowledge, and articulate the outcomes it drives for customers.

Keep the Flywheel Spinning

The AWS Partner Flywheel isn’t a one-time initiative—it’s a continuous, evolving process. For us, adopting this model was the difference between stagnation and exponential growth. By focusing on Continuous Delivery and DevOps on AWS for enterprises, we grew from $1M to $15M in annual revenue within just four years, while bootstrapped for the first two years and before.

AWS Partners can achieve similar growth by embracing the Flywheel’s principles. By learning, applying solutions, measuring impact, sharing success, validating expertise, refining through iteration, and automating operations, partners build momentum at every stage. The Flywheel’s momentum creates a virtuous cycle of continuous growth within the AWS ecosystem.