Throughout my career in platform engineering, I’ve navigated the tension between giving teams autonomy and consolidating processes. Striking this balance can be the key to boosting efficiency—or, if mishandled, a drag on progress. In a recent panel I led, we explored: • The drive for standardization: What’s behind…
In a recent panel I led, we dove into the world of internal platforms—those essential tools, APIs, and resources that engineering teams build to support their colleagues across the organization. We framed the conversation around how platform engineering isn’t so different from customer-facing product teams, applying product thinking…
Last year, I had the pleasure of presenting a talk on the Montessori method and leadership at Devoxx Benelux. I was thrilled to offer an enhanced version of this presentation in the UK. In contrast to the enormous cinema hall that hosted me in Belgium, the 120-seat room in the…
This is the fourth part of a 6-part series on using the Montessori Principles to guide you as a Leader. Today we will discuss how important it is to have clear boundaries when creating an environment that incentivises autonomy. This is the first "how" principle of the series…
In the first part of this blog mini-series, we examined the unexpected pitfalls of microservices and the careful consideration needed to address their costs and complexities. Despite these challenges, adopting a service architecture remains essential for many organizations to empower their product teams. How can we ensure a smooth migration,…
A decade ago, microservices burst onto the scene, promising to revolutionize software development and streamline complex systems. Yet, as we look back on their impact, I believe the promised benefits, even when materialized, have led to a tremendous increase in complexity and costs. In this blog post, we'll…
It was great to join the great community at DevOps Exchange in London to talk about Product Metrics for Internal Platforms. This was an introduction to the topic, so if you are already familiar with concepts such as Platform as a Product and Outcome-based Product development, you may find my…
While, as engineers, we often focus on engineering metrics (throughput, availability, security, for example) for growing a platform, I think it is more important to ensure the correct product metrics are in place. I'm not advocating for forgetting about non-functional requirements. Still, I think those should often sit…