KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024

How would you respond when the intended users for your new product tell you they do not want it? I got to find out first hand when prospective users of Istio's new Ambient mode informed me one by one that they were unlikely to adopt the software I and dozens of other engineers had spent over a year building. While difficult in the moment, these conversations helped change my understanding of what we had built together, and reshaped the strategy behind Istio's Ambient mode into something altogether new (and yet something very much the same, as we shall see). Along the way, I learned valuable lessons, including what my users think is difficult, and what they think is easy; how to foster honest (and sometimes negative) feedback from users; and the true cost and value of a cloud native platform. In this session, I will share these lessons, and discuss tactics and strategies for developing an empathetic understanding of your users.