Stop ignoring the expert operators as platform users!

Platform teams often design for application developers, but overlook another critical user: the expert operators, or internal "vendors" or producers, who create, run, and evolve platform capabilities. The most successful platforms behave like marketplaces, where multiple producers offer services to consumers, enabling a rich ecosystem of individual services and higher-level, composable experiences.

This talk reframes platform engineering through that lens, introducing operators and capability providers as first-class customers. Drawing on lessons from the CNCF ecosystem and years of platform evolution, it explores how API-first self-service, clear ownership, and full-lifecycle thinking enable "multiplayer" internal platforms that scale beyond a single team and deliver lasting organizational value.

Transcript

1. Stop ignoring the expert operators as platform users! Abby Bangser Principal Engineer @ Syntasso
2. 2025 DORA Report State of AI-assisted Software Development high-quality internal platforms are the essential foundation for AI success
3. $ agent › Create a new app that provides value • I understand the goal of creating a new application. For this I need a database. Requesting a database from the platform. • Ran ticket issue create… Waiting for response…
4. $ agent › Create a new app that will make $$$ • I understand the goal of creating a new application. For this I need a database. Requesting a database from the platform. • Ran ticket issue create… Waiting for response… • It's been 84 years... Agents can only move as fast as their platform
5. Platforms reduce complexity and give users a foundation to build on
6. Speed Efficiency Safety Principles
7. Principles of Optimized Platform Engineering API first self-service
8. Principles of Optimized Platform Engineering API first self-service Full lifecycle business compliance
9. Principles of Optimized Platform Engineering API first self-service Fleet management by capability providers Full lifecycle business compliance
10. Internal platform
11. Internal platform Shadow IT Shadow IT ! ! ! !
12. Shadow IT Shadow IT ! Internal platform “Complexity, like energy, cannot be destroyed, only redistributed.” Rachel Wonnacott The Conservation of Cognitive Load
13. Platform supply can't keep up with the demand
14. Vertical scaling add platform engineers Horizontal scaling add independent producers
15. This requires us to answer the question: When will the enterprise have its App Store Moment? Alexis Richardson GitOpsCon Keynote, 2021
16. At first, each company built their own core software
18. Consumers: Users self-serve apps craft personal experience
19. Producers: Experts create, market, and maintain installs as a fleet across devices Consumers: Users self-serve apps craft personal experience Consumers: Users self-serve apps craft personal experience
20. Internal multiplayer platform Internal platform Existing user API App store thinking introduces another persona Welcome to new users
21. Internal multiplayer platform Enable producers as customers Security Data Vendor Finance Self-service capability creation API
22. Internal multiplayer platform Standards Support Security Data Vendor Self-service capability creation API Tools Enable producers as customers Finance
23. Internal multiplayer platform Standards Support Security Data Vendor Self-service capability creation API Tools Enable producers as customers Finance
24. Consumer API The platform defines a good consumer citizen. Adhering provides benefits.
25. The platform defines a good consumer citizen. Adhering provides benefits.
26. The platform needs to define a good producer citizen. Adhering provides benefits. Internal multiplayer platform Consumer API
27. The platform needs to define a good producer citizen. Adhering provides benefits. Internal multiplayer platform Consumer API Producer API
28. The platform needs to define a good producer citizen. Adhering provides benefits. 1. Produced by API 2. Consumed by API 3. Self-managed Value Stream 4. Reconciled State 5. Implementation Agnostic 6. Fleet-Managed Instances 7. Operational clarity 8. Continuous Governance YOU Thank you to all of the early reviewers! Note that early participation does not indicate final approval.
30. Enable a world where platform innovation isn’t constrained to a single team, but nurtured across the organisation