Every optimization problem has the same question underneath it
Is this worth doing now?
Not eventually. Not someday. Now. With the time and people you actually have
Because the list of things you could optimize is always infinite. There is no cloud account anywhere that has nothing left to improve. The question is never whether there's more to do. The question is whether the next thing is worth doing before everything else
Two variables decide that
How much does it save? And how hard is it to fix?
That's it. Everything else is a distraction
High savings, low effort: this is where you start. Every single time. These are the changes that justify the entire effort. They're fast to ship, meaningful in impact, and low in risk. They create momentum and they generate the credibility that funds the harder work coming later
High savings, high effort: this is where the serious wins live. Architectural changes. Rebuilding how services communicate. Replacing legacy implementations that were never the right solution. These take real time. They need proper planning and testing. But the savings compound for years. Worth doing after the easy wins are cleared
Low savings, low effort: the cleanup work. Good habits. Worth doing when you have breathing room. Never worth prioritizing over the quadrant above it
Low savings, high effort: this is the trap that swallows teams whole. Technically interesting. Architecturally elegant. Practically not worth it. I've watched engineers spend three weeks on an optimization that saves $200 a month. The work was excellent.
The prioritization was not
The framework doesn't require a spreadsheet or a sophisticated model
For every item on your list, ask two questions
How much does this save and how hard is it to fix
Put the easy big-savers first
Everything else falls into place from there
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