Introducing the Journey to SaaS Guide to Help You Build, Launch, and Operate SaaS Solutions on AWS

By Merve Soner, Global Practice Lead – AWS SaaS Factory
By Jon Christofaris, Principal SaaS Business Development – AWS SaaS Factory

The journey to building, launching, and operating software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions is complex and non-linear. SaaS executives must align their business model, technology decisions, and organizational functions in order to deliver a high-value experience to current and future customers.

We are excited to introduce the Journey to SaaS Guide to help you assess your readiness to SaaS, identify areas where additional support may be needed, and find relevant Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources to help you navigate the SaaS journey on AWS.

This guide is built around the four non-linear stages of the journey, including business planning, product strategy and roadmap development, minimum viable service, and go-to-market/launch. It should be used in conjunction with the SaaS Journey Framework, a whitepaper that offers deeper insights into the unique stages of the SaaS journey.

The guide provides additional insights into common pain points, key questions to ask, motivations, and key AWS resources that guide you through each stage.

Who Should Use the Journey to SaaS Guide?

The Journey to SaaS guide is designed to target various roles within a SaaS organization. Product teams can use it to assess product roadmap strategy and learn architectural best practices to build and operate SaaS on AWS. Sales, marketing, and customer success teams can rethink customer experience and better align with product teams.

Partner Alliance Managers, who are leading the relationship with AWS, could leverage this guide to understand available AWS resource and how these resources could be leveraged to accelerate SaaS journey. Finally, leadership teams could benefit from this guide to assess the SaaS readiness and maturity of their organization.

How to Use the Journey to SaaS Guide?

First, assess your current state of readiness by reviewing the checklist of priorities for each stage of the journey. Within each stage of the SaaS lifecycle, there are actions, motivations, questions, and potential blockers that should be considered by every SaaS organization committed to the adoption of best-practices.

Have you carefully assessed the steps that will need to be taken to prepare for each stage?

Figure 1 – Journey to SaaS stages.

Many tasks should happen concurrently, with stakeholders from multiple organizational functions. For example, aligning internal team resources and staffing priorities can only be done when referring to your own journey, which should prioritize the value recognition milestones your customers will experience throughout their complete lifecycle as a customer.

Have you considered the common questions and motivations that SaaS companies should prioritize? Doing so will help you prepare to deliver a frictionless experience for your own customers. Now that you have evaluated your current state, use this to complete a gap assessment, and highlight areas where important decisions still need to be made or resources still need to be allocated.

Set priorities for your existing teams, noting important deliverables and potential blockers that can be addressed proactively. Prioritize the areas where you will need to build, buy or otherwise find a solution to fill the readiness gaps you have identified.

Next, refer to the guide’s resources section, where you will find key AWS and AWS Partner Network (APN) teams and programs, learning modules, thought leadership content, and AWS services that is recommended for each stage of the journey. Identify resources that will help your organization address its most urgent priorities, and take action to reach out through the channels provided.

About AWS SaaS Factory

AWS SaaS Factory helps organizations at any stage of the SaaS journey. Whether looking to build new products, migrate existing applications, or optimize SaaS solutions on AWS, we can help. Visit the AWS SaaS Factory Insights Hub to discover more technical and business content and best practices.

SaaS builders are encouraged to reach out to their account representative to inquire about engagement models and to work with the AWS SaaS Factory team.

Sign up to stay informed about the latest SaaS on AWS news, resources, and events.