The caveat of platform teams

⚠️ One of the main arguments that I heard against having platform teams is that they will most likely get carried away and implement things that nobody wants or needs.

And that is a valid concern. I think that, for example, the tendency to “automate everything” can be a concerning attitude to have in a platform team. This applies to most absolute ways of seeing things. I for sure get carried away sometimes, even though I should know better.

This is why it is important to build platforms as products, which among other things implies keeping in close contact with the users of the platform, so the team doesn’t build an aeroplane when the users need a bicycle.

At the same time, by just doing what your users ask from you it is a pretty certain path to disaster💥and the platform being convoluted and inconsistent. Sometimes users don’t know what they need. And this is as well an important aspect of running a product platform team: you need to take charge, experiment with new ways of doing things and drive adoption IF ❗they provide value.

P.S. Microsoft Designer generated some weird stuff on the desk in the image, but at least it got the spelling of the word “warning” right 😂

Originally posted on LinkedIn.