Platform As A Product: Are We Nearly There Yet

Platform as a Product might sound like a new buzzword but we’ve actually been talking about this concept for at least 8 years (and it sometimes feels like longer)!
In this talk, Paula will define what Platform as a Product is, how it has grown in popularity and how it is evolving with the increased industry focus on Platform Engineering. She’ll give real world examples of how organisations are applying a product mindset to their platform, covering the benefits that this can drive as well as the mistakes that can happen.
Paula will also provide recommendations for organisations looking to implement platform as a product and share resources for where attendees can learn more.

Transcript

1. @PaulaLKennedy Platform As A Product: Are We Nearly There Yet? paulalkennedy @paulalkennedy.bsky.social paula@syntasso.io Paula Kennedy (She / Her)
2. @PaulaLKennedy Why? Image generated by ChatGPT
3. @PaulaLKennedy Paula Kennedy (She / Her) • Co-founder and COO, Syntasso • Organiser: ◦ FastFlowConf UK ◦ Kubernetes Community Days UK ◦ DevOpsDays London • Team Topologies Advocate • Organiser: London Platform User Group (LoPUG) • OpenUK Ambassador CREATED BY Who am I ?
4. @PaulaLKennedy What is PaaP ? Platform as a Product is what happens when you apply a product mindset to your internal platform!
5. @PaulaLKennedy ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET? Photo by JD Hancock
6. @PaulaLKennedy NOT YET!! Photo by JD Hancock
7. @PaulaLKennedy
8. @PaulaLKennedy Let’s go Back In Time… Photo by JD Hancock
9. @PaulaLKennedy 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Founded CloudCredo, focused on open-source Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Foundry (my) Timeline of PaaP 2024 2025
10. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Worked with several customers to “deploy and develop agile platforms and infrastructure” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
11. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Netflix publicly blogged about their internal platforms, “the API is now like an internal PaaS system” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
12. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP CloudCredo acquired by Pivotal. New role leading Pivotal Cloud Foundry Solutions team in Europe 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
13. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Pivotal publishes white paper “Why you should treat Platform as a Product” (Joe Fitzgerald & Colin Humphreys) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
14. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Dave Bartoletti, Forrester, SpringOne Platform, “Five Cloud Native Ops Superpowers: Yes, You Can Do That!” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
15. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Cloud Foundry Summit 2018: “Platform as a Product: How to Delight Your Developers and Deliver Value for Your Customers” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
16. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP “Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow”, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
17. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Puppet State of DevOps Report 2020: “A product mindset is key to scaling DevOps and your platform.” 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2012 2024 2025
18. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP “Platform as Product” online training course launched by Team Topologies Academy 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
19. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP Virtual PlatformCon 2022 event with more than 70 talks, key theme of Platform as a Product highlighted 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
20. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP “Platform teams must understand the needs of their user groups… and then build a platform that is useful” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
21. @PaulaLKennedy (my) Timeline of PaaP “It’s about applying product- centric working practices within the team” 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
22. @PaulaLKennedy UNDERSTAND PLATFORM AS A PRODUCT, YOU MUST! Photo by JD Hancock
23. @PaulaLKennedy Why not? Photo by JD Hancock
24. @PaulaLKennedy Why not? • Lack of understanding Photo by JD Hancock
25. @PaulaLKennedy Why not? • Lack of understanding • Lack of investment Photo by JD Hancock
26. @PaulaLKennedy Why not? • Lack of understanding • Lack of investment • Fear / reluctance to change Photo by JD Hancock
27. @PaulaLKennedy Why not? • Lack of understanding • Lack of investment • Fear / reluctance to change • It’s hard! Photo by JD Hancock
28. @PaulaLKennedy Is it worth it? Photo by JD Hancock
29. @PaulaLKennedy Is it worth it? “Not every platform team is automatically successful, but the successful ones treat their platform as a product.” Source: Puppet State of DevOps Report 2021
30. @PaulaLKennedy Is it worth it? “Not every platform team is automatically successful, but the successful ones treat their platform as a product.” Source: Puppet State of DevOps Report 2021 “In 10 months, scaled to 29 teams in 4 countries with 3x deploys per month (Canadian bank)“ Source: https://springone.io/2019/sessions/platform-as-a- product- how-to-delight-your-developers-and-deliver-value-for- your-customers
31. @PaulaLKennedy Is it worth it? “Not every platform team is automatically successful, but the successful ones treat their platform as a product.” Source: Puppet State of DevOps Report 2021 “Between 2010 and 2019 Uswitch achieved 6x revenue growth and 14x operating profit growth. Adopting the platform increased teams’ productivity and flow of delivery” Uswitch case study: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1e6Vjm7y0 “In 10 months, scaled to 29 teams in 4 countries with 3x deploys per month (Canadian bank)“ Source: https://springone.io/2019/sessions/platform-as-a- product- how-to-delight-your-developers-and-deliver-value-for- your-customers
32. @PaulaLKennedy Is it worth it? “Not every platform team is automatically successful, but the successful ones treat their platform as a product.” Source: Puppet State of DevOps Report 2021 “Between 2010 and 2019 Uswitch achieved 6x revenue growth and 14x operating profit growth. Adopting the platform increased teams’ productivity and flow of delivery” Uswitch case study: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1e6Vjm7y0 “In 10 months, scaled to 29 teams in 4 countries with 3x deploys per month (Canadian bank)“ Source: https://springone.io/2019/sessions/platform-as-a- product- how-to-delight-your-developers-and-deliver-value-for- your-customers “And we need to realize gains beyond tech, [like] more involvement and input into what the platforms do and how they can help the entire company.” Suzy Julius, Realtor.com Source: https://thenewstack.io/at-platformcon-for- realtor-com-success-is-driven-by-stories/
33. @PaulaLKennedy LET’S RECAP Photo by JD Hancock
34. @PaulaLKennedy How can we “fix it”? Photo by JD Hancock
35. @PaulaLKennedy Team Topologies
36. @PaulaLKennedy Platform Engineering
37. @PaulaLKennedy Platform Eng Maturity Model https://tag-app-delivery.cncf.io/whitepapers/platform-eng-maturity-model/#model-table
38. @PaulaLKennedy Photo by JD Hancock Do or Do Not. There is no try.
39. @PaulaLKennedy Do or Do Not. There is no try. • Bring in a Product Manager Photo by JD Hancock
40. @PaulaLKennedy • Bring in a Product Manager • User research / observe platform usage Photo by JD Hancock Do or Do Not. There is no try.
41. @PaulaLKennedy • Bring in a Product Manager • User research / observe platform usage • Community of Practice / share stories / evangelise Photo by JD Hancock Do or Do Not. There is no try.
42. @PaulaLKennedy • Bring in a Product Manager • User research / observe platform usage • Community of Practice / share stories / evangelise • Improve Developer Experience Photo by JD Hancock Do or Do Not. There is no try.
43. @PaulaLKennedy UNDERSTAND PLATFORM AS A PRODUCT, YOU DO! Photo by JD Hancock
44. @PaulaLKennedy Want to know more? ME & ROSIE syntasso.io paulalkennedy @paulalkennedy.bsky.social paula@syntasso.io WHAT I DO!
45. @PaulaLKennedy References / links Blogs / websites: https://blog.hatofmonkeys.com/blog/2015/01/05/the-cloudcredo-way/ https://netflixtechblog.com/the-netflix-dynamic-scripting-platform-78c1b18b2a74 https://tanzu.vmware.com/content/white-papers/why-you-should-treat-platform- as-a-product https://teamtopologies.com/ https://www.puppet.com/resources/state-of-devops-report https://2022.platformcon.com/ https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-is-platform-engineering? https://thenewstack.io/at-platformcon-for-realtor-com-success-is-driven-by-stories/ https://tag-app-delivery.cncf.io/whitepapers/platform-eng-maturity-model/#model- table Videos: Dave Bartoletti, SpringOne Platform: https://youtu.be/XdfQZbyO76Y?si=1PiAt6AP6MKVItEj Paula Kennedy, CF Summit: https://youtu.be/ccKy6Np7Jxo?si=IpG5l9WILwDtvsDQ Uswitch case study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1e6Vjm7y0 Kirsten Schwarzer, Designing for Success: UX Principles for Internal Developer Platforms Samantha Coffman: https://youtu.be/Z_KCOcoliLI?feature=shared Other: https://tanzu.vmware.com/content/blog/in-2019-put-a-platform-as-a-product- strategy-in-place https://adrianco.medium.com/platform-engineering-teams-done-right- b3b3d4a8ad23 https://samnewman.io/blog/2023/02/08/dont-call-it-a-platform/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Platform-Engineering-Technical-Product- Leaders/dp/1098153642 Conferences / Meetups: https://devopsdays.org/events/2025-london/welcome/ https://community.cncf.io/events/details/cncf-kcd-uk-presents-kubernetes- community-days-uk-edinburgh-2025/ https://www.meetup.com/london-platform-user-group-lopug/ https://www.fastflowconf.com/ https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/co-located- events/platform-engineering-day/ All images by JD Hancock: photos.jdhancock.com
46. @PaulaLKennedy THANK YOU! kratix.io HELPING PLATFORM TEAMS THRIVE