Cloud modernization is too often framed as an architecture problem. Architecture matters, but it is rarely the first executive question.
Leaders need a view of the economics of change. Which costs are structural? Which delays are avoidable? Where does resilience create value? Which vendor dependencies are acceptable? Which decisions will become faster once the platform changes?
That framing changes the work. It moves the conversation from technical preference to business consequence, and it forces the roadmap to show what the organization is buying with each wave of investment.
The best cloud roadmaps do not hide trade-offs behind migration language. They make them explicit before money, people, and attention are committed.