Navigating Platform Success without a PO

Table of contents

TL;DR

Platform teams can often be the unsung heroes of many engineering organisations. The platform itself is a foundational piece of engineering organisations, when it works smoothly, and engineers can go fast without collisions, no one notices. The fact that a platform team’s best work can be invisible is one of the core reasons that they need to be good at discussing and showing the impact of their contributions. Many platform teams often lack a dedicated Product Owner who would typically guide the roadmap and communicate the impact of the team’s work. Instead, platform engineers frequently find themselves in the position of having to define, drive, and promote their own roadmap.

Navigating Without a Product Owner

In the common product team setup, a Product Owner plays a crucial role in shaping the direction of the product, engaging with stakeholders, and demonstrating the impact of the team’s work. This role is vital in bridging the gap between the engineering team and the rest of the organisation, ensuring that everyone understands the value being delivered.

In the case of platform teams, the frequent absence of a Product Owner means that engineers must take on these responsibilities themselves. This can be a daunting task, as they are required not only to develop and maintain the platform but also to communicate its significance and impact.

Real-World Example: The Silent Infrastructure Upgrade

Consider a platform team that recently completed a major Kubernetes upgrade, moving from version 1.25 to 1.27. The technical work involved:

• Thorough planning and testing in staging environments
• Coordinating closely with application teams
• Executing the upgrade outside business hours
• Maintaining vigilant monitoring throughout

While the upgrade proceeded smoothly with no service disruption, the business impact remained largely invisible to stakeholders. The team could have better articulated:

• Critical security improvements delivered
• Enhanced developer workflows enabled
• Risk mitigation achieved
• Preventive measures implemented

The Importance of Communicating Impact

You might wonder, why is it necessary for platform teams to focus so much on communication? Isn’t their impact obvious? The reality is that the contributions of platform teams are often invisible. When everything is running smoothly—deployments are seamless, new repositories are easily created, and pipelines are consistently green—it’s easy for others in the organisation to overlook the effort that goes into maintaining this stability.

This invisibility can lead to a lack of recognition for the platform team’s efforts and make it challenging to justify investments in future projects. Therefore, it becomes crucial for these teams to proactively communicate their successes and the value they bring to the organisation.

Key Metrics That Matter

To effectively communicate impact, we need to focus on metrics that resonate with both technical and business stakeholders:

1. Developer Productivity Metrics:

   • Time to provision new environments
   • Mean time to recovery (MTTR)
   • Deployment frequency
   • Change failure rate

2. Business Impact Metrics:

   • Cost savings from automation
   • Security incident reduction
   • Developer time efficiency
   • Infrastructure optimisation costs

Defining the Roadmap: A Platform Team’s Responsibility

For platform teams without a Product Owner, creating and driving the roadmap is an additional challenge. Engineers need to engage directly with stakeholders to understand their needs and align platform initiatives accordingly. This requires not just technical expertise but also strong communication and collaboration skills.

By effectively communicating their roadmap and its impact, platform teams can ensure that their work is recognised and valued. This involves sharing successes, learning from feedback, and continuously refining their approach based on the needs of the organisation.

Practical Steps for Roadmap Success

1. Gather Input:

   • Regular surveys of developer pain points
   • Regular stakeholder interviews
   • Analysis of support tickets and requests
   • Monitoring of platform usage patterns

2. Prioritise Effectively:

   • Impact vs. effort matrix
   • Risk assessment
   • Alignment with business objectives
   • Technical debt consideration

3. Progress Communication:

   • Regular status briefings
   • Regular feature demonstrations
   • Success and learning documentation

Balancing Technical Debt and Innovation

One unique challenge for platform teams is managing the balance between maintaining existing infrastructure and driving innovation. Consider these approaches:

1. The 70/20/10 Rule:

   • 70% operational excellence and maintenance
   • 20% planned improvements and features
   • 10% innovation and experimentation

2. Technical Debt Strategy:

   • Regular audit of system health
   • Proactive modernisation planning
   • Clear communication of technical risks
   • Impact assessment of delayed maintenance

Conclusion

In conclusion, the challenge of self-driven roadmaps for platform teams highlights the critical importance of communication. Without a Product Owner to advocate for their work, platform engineers must take on the dual role of building and promoting their platform. By focusing on effective communication and stakeholder engagement, these teams can showcase their impact, build credibility, and secure support for future initiatives.

What’s Next in the Series

In the upcoming articles, we’ll dive deeper into:

1. “Making the Invisible Visible” - Practical strategies for showcasing platform work
2. ”Metrics That Matter” - Setting up and tracking meaningful platform KPIs
3. ”Stakeholder Management” - Building strong relationships with business leaders