Netflix is famous for its culture of Freedom and Responsibility, which empowers engineers to choose the best tool for the job. Engineering teams at Netflix can follow the latest industry trends and sometimes they even create them. No one single team is responsible for innovation: does this generate opportunity or waste or both? The Engineering Tools team helps to direct other teams’ experimentation toward new products while preserving their own ability to innovate. This talk will explore the challenges of building and operating a centralized service team in the decentralized microservice world of Netflix. This includes building tools customers love, standing up an effective customer service model, productizing innovations, enabling self-service tooling, and providing consulting services to engineering teams. Mike will share tips on how to effectively establish a “tools team” in your organization.