An outside-in research study commissioned by Microsoft to understand how digital native startups experience and perceive cloud adoption — and what separates Microsoft from the brands they default to.
Microsoft's cloud products were technically competitive. But among digital native companies — the startups and born-in-cloud teams who would shape the next generation of cloud adoption — AWS had become the default. Microsoft commissioned Redesign to understand why. Not from the inside out, but from the outside in: from the perspective of the startups themselves.
Our research found the gap was not about features or pricing. It was about brand character and experience. Startups described AWS as "The Hero" — a brand of mastery, self-actualization, and empowerment. Microsoft was "The Ruler" — commanding, enterprise-oriented, built for established institutions. Both perceptions were deeply held, and largely formed before startups evaluated a single product feature.
Understanding that gap — its sources, its structure, and its implications — was the work Microsoft needed done.
Redesign led a structured research engagement combining an internal Microsoft perspective with qualitative interviews conducted across the digital native startup ecosystem in ten countries.
The engagement delivered a research report, AS-IS and TO-BE journey maps, and a three-episode visual narrative — all designed as outputs that Microsoft's team could use to communicate findings internally, across teams who needed to understand the digital native experience without having been present in the research.
The central reframe: from product gap to experience gap. The work gave Microsoft a clear, evidence-based understanding of how the brand was perceived by the segment it most needed to win — and a concrete direction for how to close the distance.
Redesign conducts outside-in research that surfaces the perception gaps and experience failures that internal data alone can't reveal.
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