1) A platform as a product approach treats an internal platform like an externally-facing product by carefully designing it, evolving it based on user needs, and using modern product management practices.
2) This reduces cognitive load on internal engineering teams using the platform by simplifying tasks and providing optional, self-service capabilities.
3) Getting started involves assessing user needs, defining the platform, and determining team interaction models for collaboration and service delivery. Case studies demonstrate how platforms can evolve from basic services to sophisticated, widely adopted products.
2. Matthew Skelton
2
Co-author of the book Team Topologies
Founder at Conflux - confluxhq.com
Twitter: @matthewpskelton
LinkedIn: matthewskelton
3. Team Topologies
4
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (2019)
teamtopologies.com/book
4. “innovative tools and concepts for
structuring the next generation
digital operating model”
Charles T. Betz,
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
5
5. What is “Platform as a
Product” and why should I
adopt this approach?
6
6. 7
What is a Platform?
What really is a Product?
Examples: P-as-a-P
Getting Started
8. “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
9
Source: https://martinfowler.com/articles/talk-about-platforms.html
9. “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
10
10. “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
11
11. “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
12
14. 15
“...we’ve been using the
concepts from Team
Topologies to split platform
teams in our projects into
enablement teams, core
“platform within a platform”
teams and stream-focused
teams.”
-- ThoughtWorks Tech Radar, Vol.22, p.10
17. 18
“We’re still big fans of using
concepts from Team
Topologies as we think about
how best to organize platform
teams. We consider platform
engineering product teams
to be a standard approach
and a significant enabler for
high-performing IT.”
-- ThoughtWorks Tech Radar, Vol.24, p.9
18. 19
A platform is a curated
experience for engineers
(the customers of the
platform).
19. 20
treat the platform as a
product (reliable, usable, fit
for purpose) for voluntary
internal customers
Platform as a Product
20. “Create a path of
least resistance.
Make the right thing
the easiest thing to do.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
21
37. 41
Thinnest Viable Platform
smallest set of APIs, documentation,
and tools needed to accelerate teams
developing modern software services
and systems
38. “software developers love building
platforms and, without strong product
management input, will create a
bigger platform than needed.”
- Allan Kelly
42
39. 43
Example: Thinnest Viable Platform
A small, curated set of complementary
services or patterns to use together to
simplify and accelerate delivery.
“Use these N services in these ways...”
Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash
49. 53
2019
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HMRT
(Highest Maturity
& Revenue Team)
2017
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2018
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS
51. “product (...) is anything that can
be offered to a market to satisfy
the desire or need of a customer”
- Wikipedia
55
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_(business)
80. 85
product metrics
(Accelerate metrics for platform services)
user satisfaction metrics
(Accelerate metrics for business services, NPS, etc)
adoption & engagement metrics
(% teams onboard, per platform and per service)
reliability metrics
(SLOs, latency, #Incidents, etc)
Platform Metrics
81. 86
The success of platform
teams is the success of
stream-aligned teams
86. 91
Low-level AWS service calls (EC2, IAM, STS, Autoscaling, etc.) from January 2015 to January 2017
87. “We didn’t change our organization
because we wanted to use
Kubernetes, we used Kubernetes
because we wanted to change
our organization.”
- Paul Ingles
92
90. 96
… in order to reduce
extraneous cognitive load
on stream-aligned teams
Platform Purpose
91. “We wanted to scale our teams but
maintain the principles of what
helped us move fast: autonomy,
work with minimal coordination,
self-service infrastructure.”
- Paul Ingles
98
94. “Kubernetes helps us in a few ways:
- Application-focused abstractions
- Operate and configure clusters to
minimise coordination ”
- Paul Ingles 104
96. 109
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS
97. 110
...
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HMMT
(Highest Money
Making Team)
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS
98. 111
2019
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HMRT
(Highest Maturity
& Revenue Team)
2017
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2018
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS
112. How well can the team understand the
platform abstractions they need to use
on a regular basis?
1 - Assess cognitive load
125
github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Cognitive-Load-Assessment
113. What does your platform actually do?
Is this what users need?
What is the UX/DevEx of using the
platform? What should it be?
2 - Define your platform
126
114. Who is responsible for what? Who is
impacted? How do you collaborate on
new platform internal services?
Collaboration vs X-as-a-Service
3 - Team Interactions
127
115. Zalando Kubernetes at Zalando
Mercedes DevOps Adoption at Mercedes-Benz.io
Twilio Platforms at Twilio: Unlocking Developer Effectiveness
Adidas Where Cloud Native Meets the Sporting Goods Industry
ITV ITV's Common Platform v2 Better, Faster, Cheaper, Happier
MAN Truck & Bus How to Manage Cloud Infrastructure at MAN Truck & Bus
Farfetch UX I DevOps - The Trojan Horse for Implementing a DevOps Culture
More platform examples
128
117. Platform as a Product - online learning
130
academy.teamtopologies.com
118. Remote Team Interactions
Workbook
Using Team Topologies Patterns for
Remote Working
Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais
IT Revolution, January 2022
131
Resources: teamtopologies.com/workbook