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Ten years ago, when Adobe management finally made up its mind to enter the software-as-a-service (SaaS) realm and become part of the mass migration from selling boxed software to selling its software offerings via subscription, Adobe\u2019s migratory undertaking might well have been compared to that of the arctic tern.

With by far the longest such treks known in the animal kingdom, the arctic tern has one of the most widely followed migrations on the planet\u2014and such would be the case for Adobe, whose most dedicated observers were unquestionably its investors.

\u201cHow do we tell investors that this is a great thing for them, that the metrics on which they\u2019re most reliant actually won\u2019t have any validity for 2 or 3 years, and that they should look at other numbers instead?,\u201d asks Justin Judd, who at the time\u2014as a vice president in Adobe\u2019s corporate legal group\u2014became involved in the massive migration as the company\u2019s finance and legal worlds converged to better address the transformation\u2019s communication challenges.

To Judd, Adobe\u2019s migration to SaaS was an inflection point not only for the company but also for his career, which\u2014considering the legal complexities of the migration\u2014would benefit from having direct involvement with Adobe\u2019s executive team and board. What\u2019s more, Judd found himself increasingly intertwined with the company\u2019s finance teams and leaders.

\u201cIn communicating and developing the strategy and running through this process, I learned the value that finance can have in framing hard decisions for companies and the importance of business context because Adobe invested deeply in understanding what our customers needed,\u201d explains Judd, who\u2014although initially summoned for his legal guidance\u2014seems to have savored the broader communications challenge that was being addressed by Adobe\u2019s finance teams.

\u201c\u2019Here\u2019s how our product offerings work. Here are the implications of decisions that we make.\u2019 Let me bring this information back and present it in a way that can be influential and powerful in helping our decision-making to be successful,\u201d remarks Judd, who would trade in his legal moniker in 2018 when he was named CFO of Adobe\u2019s digital experience business\u2014perhaps a less-than-surprise outcome in light of his previous multiyear entrenchment within the company\u2019s finance leadership.

However, unlike with the arctic tern, for Judd there would be no turning back.\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0