What Is Platform as a Product & Why Should You Care?

With the emergence of platform engineering, there is a high risk of over-engineering internal solutions for problems that are either low value or low frequency. Small short term gains can become long term weaknesses due to accidental complexity and/or poor return on investment, making the platform fragile.

Successful long term platform engineering approaches require: 1) a focus on reducing cognitive load first and foremost ; 2) collaborative design and evolution of the platform through adequate interactions that truly accelerate teams; and 3) treating the platform as a product.

But what does it mean to treat a “platform as a product”? What benefits does this give, and why would an organization adopt this approach?

In this talk, Manuel Pais, co-author of the book Team Topologies, explains why the “platform as a product” approach can be a powerful “engine for fast flow”, if done right. You will see how some forward thinking organizations like Adidas or Uswitch successfully followed this path to accelerate and simplify the delivery of software at scale.

Transcript

1. TeamTopologies.com @TeamTopologies What is Platform as a Product & Why Should You Care? Manuel Pais co-author of Team Topologies Platform Engineering KAIGI - 9 July 2024
2. Team Topologies 3 Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, 2019 teamtopologies.com/book
3. “innovative tools and concepts for structuring the next generation digital operating model” Charles T. Betz, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research 4
4. ⚠ A mandated platform (often) increases the cognitive load of teams 8
5. 9 Waiting for the answer to a ticket?
6. Functional silos 10 Infra CI/CD Monitoring Deployment Poorly integrated services?
7. 12 Confusing APIs?
8. 13 Service unavailable or too slow?
9. 4 key metrics: ‘Accelerate’ 14 ⚠ lead time ⚠ deployment frequency ⚠ mean time to restore ⚠ change fail percentage
10. 15 A valuable platform reduces the cognitive load of stream-aligned teams.
11. teamperature.com
12. What is a Platform? 24
13. “A digital platform is a foundation of self-service APIs, tools, services, knowledge and support which are arranged as a compelling internal product.” – Evan Bottcher, 2018 25 Source: https://martinfowler.com/articles/talk-about-platforms.html
14. “Create a path of least resistance. Make the right thing the easiest thing to do.” – Evan Bottcher, 2018 31
15. 59 Thinnest Viable Platform
16. 63 Thinnest Viable Platform A small, curated set of complementary services or patterns that simplify and accelerate delivery when used together. “Use these N services in these ways...” Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash
17. A good platform is just “big enough” but no bigger 65
18. 66 Platform evolution via clear team interactions
19. “My own definition of DevOps: Everything you do to overcome the friction between silos. All the rest is plain engineering.” – Patrick Debois, 2021 The DevOps Handbook (2nd edition) 67
20. Lack of adequate team interactions prevents effective platform evolution
21. 70 strong collaboration with stream-aligned teams for any new service or evolution Platform Behaviors
23. 72 provide support and great documentation for stable services Platform Behaviors
26. The other hard problem for effective platforms is building trust.
27. 76 Invest in building trust early, “plant the seed” for platform adoption later
28. Industry Example 77
29. Case Study 78
30. Case Study 79 https://videos.itrevolution.com/watch/431737448/
31. Case Study 80 https://videos.itrevolution.com/watch/431737448/
32. What is a Product? 86
33. Product: Holistic User Experience Functionality + Design + Monetization + Content – Marty Cagan, 2010 89 Source: https://svpg.com/defining-product/
34. 90 A product is optional to use - no-one is forced to use the product
36. 92 A product is carefully designed and curated
38. 94 A product simplifies something for users
40. 96 A product evolves to take advantage of technology changes
42. 98 s/product/platform/g
43. 99 A platform is optional to use - no team is forced to use the platform
44. 100 Platforms must advocate for their platform product and “market” it to internal teams
46. 102 A platform is carefully designed and curated
47. 103 Platforms must be designed with the user in mind (internal teams) - focus on UX and DevEx
48. 104 A platform simplifies something for users
49. 105 Platforms must help users to achieve goals by understanding user needs and simplifying tasks & workflows
50. 106 A platform evolves to take advantage of technology changes
51. 107 Platforms must evolve the capabilities they offer (adding/removing) with a clear (yet flexible) roadmap
52. 108 A platform needs modern product management (and service management)
53. Industry Example 111
54. Case Study 112 https://teamtopologies.com/industry-examples/ organizational-evolution-accelerating-delivery-of-comparison-services-uswitch
55. 114 Flow of change
56. “People were spending more time having to interact with relatively low-level services thus spending their time on relatively low-value decisions.” - Paul Ingles 116
58. 119 A valuable platform reduces the cognitive load of stream-aligned teams.
59. 136 Flow of change
60. 137 How do we know we’re on the “right path”? (aka Platform Metrics)
61. 138 adoption & engagement metrics Platform Metrics
63. 141 adoption & engagement metrics user satisfaction metrics Platform Metrics
65. 143 adoption & engagement metrics user satisfaction metrics reliability metrics Platform Metrics
67. 146 adoption & engagement metrics user satisfaction metrics reliability metrics delivery metrics Platform Metrics
68. 4 key metrics: ‘Accelerate’ 147 lead time deployment frequency mean time to restore (MTTR) change fail percentage
69. 150 The success of platform teams is ultimately the success of the teams using the platform
70. 153 Establishing solid platform engineering is a journey, requires long term funding.
72. 155 • new engineers shipping to production on week 1 Success Story?
73. 156 • new engineers shipping to production on week 1 • reduced cloud costs by 10% across services thanks to cheaper instances 👀👀👀 Success Story!
74. 157 Focus on the “last mile” of platform as a product: measure generated value.
75. 159 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwaRKcjkAAo
76. 160 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwaRKcjkAAo BIZ LANGUAGE
78. 162 • teams onboard the platform • applications using the platform • traffic served by the platform • ... Adoption Metrics
79. 163 • teams onboard the platform • applications using the platform • traffic served by the platform • revenue served through platform services 👀👀👀 Adoption Metrics
80. Four pillars for platform sustainability 164
81. 165 1 Trusted platform Platform (services and team s) are trusted by product team s
82. 166 1 Trusted platform Platform (services and team s) are trusted by product team s 2 Shared success stories Successes using the platform need to be shared w idely (qualitative value)
83. 167 1 Trusted platform Platform (services and team s) are trusted by product team s 2 Shared success stories Successes using the platform need to be shared w idely (qualitative value) 3 Internal confidence M etrics on platform adoption, user satisfaction, reliability
84. 168 1 Trusted platform Platform (services and team s) are trusted by product team s 2 Shared success stories Successes using the platform need to be shared w idely (qualitative value) 3 Internal confidence M etrics on platform adoption, user satisfaction, reliability 4 External confidence P&L m etrics around ROI, cost (control), tim e to m arket, flow
87. 177 “most platform approaches [will] fail if technology remains the primary focus (…) companies that explicitly focus on team interactions, developer experience, feedback loops, and product management will leapfrog those who do not”
88. 178 Happier users (engineers) Reduced cognitive load No technology bloat Designed to evolve
89. 179 The ways of working outside Engineering (in)directly impact all of the above ⚠
90. 213 Copyright © Team Topologies Ltd 2024. All rights reserved. teamtopologies.com/ platform-engineering “Platform Engineering as a Way of Thinking and Team-of-Teams Design”