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 to make developers’ lives easier.
Here’s what we covered:
• Purpose of platform engineering: How do platforms drive system rationalization and improve developer effectiveness?
• Demonstrating platform value: What strategies are effective in showing impact, even when the end-users are internal?
• Shapes of platform initiatives: From dedicated platform teams to inner-sourcing and lightweight wikis—how do different approaches evolve with company needs?
• Platform discovery: How do platform teams discover needs and incorporate customer research into roadmaps?
• Balancing priorities: For cloud platform teams, how do you weigh internal team needs against broader goals like cost and security?
• Encouraging platform adoption: From incentivizing to mandating, we explored effective ways to drive adoption without alienating teams.
Our conversation explored why platforms are essential, even if you haven’t formalized them. Catch the full video for insights on making your platform a true force multiplier across your organization!