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

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

22. 71

23. 72 provide support and great documentation for stable services Platform

    Behaviors

24. 73

25. 74

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

35. 91

36. 92 A product is carefully designed and curated

37. 93

38. 94 A product simplifies something for users

39. 95

40. 96 A product evolves to take advantage of technology changes

41. 97

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

45. 101

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

57. 118

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

62. 139

63. 141 adoption & engagement metrics user satisfaction metrics Platform Metrics

64. 142

65. 143 adoption & engagement metrics user satisfaction metrics reliability metrics

    Platform Metrics

66. 144

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.

71. 154

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

77. 161

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

85. 175

86. 176

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”