Platform as a Product: A Mindset Shift #
Platform as a Product is more than a buzzword — it’s a fundamental mindset shift that transforms platform teams from tool-builders to value enablers. By applying product thinking, platform engineers can:
- Build tools that developers love
- Increase adoption
- Improve reliability
- Reduce delivery times
- Create a culture of continuous improvement
The Anti-Pattern #
Internal platforms are treated like backend tools, designed in isolation by infrastructure teams and pushed onto developers.
This will eventually leads to:
- Poor adoption
- Unclear value
- Frustrated users
- High maintenance with low impact
“Teams need to shift from a ‘we built it, now use it’ mentality to a ‘how do we help you succeed?’ mentality.”
Key Principles #
- Know Your Users
Your developers are your customers. Just like product managers talk to external users, platform teams should engage with internal teams to understand few of their pain points like:
- What are their biggest pain points?
- Where are they spending time on toil?
- What tools do they wish they had?
Empathy for Developers
At the heart of the platform-as-a-product mindset lies a deep understanding of your users — the internal developers.
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Conduct user surveys: Asking developers about their pain points, what slows them down, and what tools or features would help most.
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Shadow developer workflows: Spending time with teams to see how they work, where bottlenecks occur, and what workarounds they use.
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Create personas: Document a detailed profile representing different types of developers (e.g., frontend, backend, data scientists, infrastructure, security) to tailor platform features accordingly.
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Prioritize feedback loops: Provide open communication channels, like office hours, team groups, to gather ongoing feedback.
- Prioritize Developer Experience (DevEx)
Developer Experience is about making the platform intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use. A great developer experience reduces friction, accelerates workflows, and empowers teams to focus on building value rather than battling tools.
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Self-service and automation: Provide developers with easy, self-serve portals for provisioning resources, deploying applications, or running tests without waiting for approvals or manual intervention.
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Clear and accessible documentation: Maintain up-to-date guides, tutorials, and FAQs that help developers onboard quickly and troubleshoot independently.
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Fast feedback loops: Integrate CI/CD pipelines and monitoring tools that give immediate feedback on builds, tests, and deployments.
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Consistent and reliable interfaces: Use standardized APIs, templates, and workflows that reduce cognitive load and avoid confusion.
“A focus on DevEx helps ensure the platform feels less like an obstacle and more like a helpful partner.”
- Design and Promote Golden Paths
Golden paths are opinionated, well-documented workflows or pipelines that represent the easiest, most reliable way to get work done on the platform. They guide developers toward best practices while reducing decision fatigue and operational risk.
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Create clear, standardized workflows: Define repeatable patterns for common tasks like deploying applications, provisioning environments, or handling incidents.
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Automate guardrails: Embed security policies, compliance checks, and monitoring into golden paths to enforce standards automatically.
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Provide flexibility: Allow flexibility for advanced users to deviate when necessary, ensuring freedom without chaos.
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Communicate golden paths widely: Promote these workflows through documentation, workshops/trainings, and examples to increase adoption.
“Golden paths balance developer autonomy with organizational governance, making it easier to do the right thing by default.”
- Iterative Delivery and Continuous Improvement
Treating the platform as a product means accepting that it’s never done. Instead of waiting to build a perfect solution, platform teams should release small, incremental features, then learn and adapt based on real-world usage.
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Start with Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Identify the highest-impact pain point and build a simple solution that can be delivered quickly.
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Deploy frequently: Use agile methodologies and continuous delivery to release improvements in small batches.
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Gather usage data: Instrument your platform to track how features are used and identify areas for improvement.
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Qualitative feedback: Regularly check in with developers and gather feedback about the platform.
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Prioritize based on impact: Use data and feedback to decide which features or fixes will bring the most value next.
“This cycle keeps the platform aligned with evolving needs and increases adoption over time.”
- Measure Developer-Centric Success Metrics
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Defining and tracking meaningful KPIs focused on developer outcomes helps justify investments, highlight successes, and uncover bottlenecks.
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Adoption metrics: Number or percentage of developers actively using the platform.
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Efficiency metrics: Time saved on key workflows like environment setup, code deployment, or incident resolution.
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Quality metrics: Frequency of failed builds or incidents caused by platform issues.
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Business impact: Faster time to market, reduced operational costs, or improved system reliability attributable to the platform.
" Use of dashboards and reports to share these metrics transparently across teams, creating shared ownership and focus."
- Communicate and Evangelize Internally (Platform Enablement)
Even the best platform won’t deliver value if developers don’t know about it, understand how to use it, or trust it. Platform teams need to act like product marketers to drive awareness, adoption, and enthusiasm.
- Regular updates: Share release notes, roadmaps, and success stories via newsletters, Teams channels, or town halls.
- Training and onboarding: Offer workshops, enablement sessions, tutorials, and “office hours” to help teams get started and answer questions.
- User advocacy: Build developer champions and advocates who promote the platform within their teams.
- Open channels for feedback: Create forums, groups, or issue trackers where developers can ask questions, request features, or report bugs.
- Celebrate wins: Highlight how the platform helped teams ship faster, avoid incidents, or solve tricky problems.
“Effective communication builds trust, encourages collaboration, and turns the platform into a trusted and beloved internal product.”
Why Internal Platforms Fail #
- Built Without Developer Input
Platforms designed in isolation by infrastructure or operations teams, without involving the developers who actually use them. This results in misaligned features, flaky workflows, and poor usability.
- Treating the Platform as a Project, Not a Product
Platforms are often “launched” and then left to stagnate, with little ongoing improvement or support. Unlike products, there’s no continuous cycle of feedback, iteration, or marketing.
- Lack of Clear Metrics and Goals
Without tracking adoption, developer satisfaction, or productivity impact, teams can’t tell if the platform is working or where to improve. This leads to wasted effort and missed opportunities.
- Too Much Manual Work and Friction
Manual approvals, slow feedback loops, inconsistent environments, and tool fragmentation create frustration and slow down delivery — driving developers to find their own workarounds.
Don’t Build Your Platform in a Vacuum
Internal platform won’t succeed unless it’s built with developers, not just for them. Applying product thinking means continuous collaboration, empathy, iteration, and measurement — all focused on delivering value to your internal stakeholders.
“Your developers are your customers. If you want them to use and love the platform — build it like you would build any successful product. ❤️”