Is a Platform Team Doomed to Be a Victim of Its Own Success?

Introduction

Last week I had a great conversation with someone who has a lot of background and experience with platform teams in multiple high-performing environments. They brought up a provocative idea that successful teams always seem to become victims of their own success. The issue, as they see it, is that eventually every successful platform team becomes overwhelmed with maintenance and builds a perception of not being aligned with the business. So is every platform team doomed if they become successful? I don't think that it's a guaranteed outcome but there are some practices to put in place to mitigate the risk of this happening.

The Core Problem

The essence of a platform team is to offer services that simplify tasks for its users, typically developers. Initially, these teams can rapidly deliver high-value services, thanks to the low complexity of early stages. However, as platforms evolve, adding features and enhancements, the complexity and maintenance demands skyrocket. This growth leads to higher operational costs without a corresponding increase in perceived business value. Eventually, the introduction of new features slows, exacerbating the perception of diminishing returns. Moreover, the necessity for users to migrate to updated services can further diminish the platform's value.

Three fundamental issues arise from this scenario:

1. Diminishing Perceived Value: Initially, the rapid changes and visible benefits of a new platform secure its perceived value. Over time, as the pace of innovation slows and maintenance takes precedence, this perception wanes, despite the platform's continued utility and business value.

2. Unsustainable Feature Growth: The demand to add features can lead to an unsustainable scope of responsibilities for the platform team, making it difficult to manage without exponentially increasing resources.

3. Disruptive Migrations: Required migrations to new platform components can be costly and disruptive, eroding the platform's perceived value further.

Addressing the Challenges

1. Enhancing Perceived Value:

• Tie the platform's existence directly to business value: Highlight what would be lost without the platform and establish clear metrics linking platform features to business outcomes.
• Demonstrate ongoing value: Use growth metrics and a roadmap of improvements to illustrate the platform's evolving contribution to the business.
• Educate stakeholders: Help them understand the complexity of managing a mature platform and how technical debt impacts business outcomes.

2. Managing Feature Growth:

• Exercise caution with new features: Implement solid product management practices to prioritize features based on actual user needs and business impact.
• Retire redundant features: Regularly assess feature usage and retire those that are no longer valuable, reducing maintenance burdens and informing future prioritization.

3. Mitigating Migration Impacts:

• Consider customer impact: Plan migrations carefully, providing support and training to ease transitions and minimize disruption.
• Control and streamline features: Understanding and managing feature usage (and retiring little used features) can lessen the impact of migrations, making transitions smoother.

Conclusion

So are successful platform teams doomed? The challenges are there, but they are not insurmountable. By focusing on maintaining alignment with business value, managing feature growth judiciously, and carefully planning migrations, platform teams can continue to deliver value without falling victim to their own success. The key lies in managing your platform as a product, prioritizing user needs and consistently communicating business value to stakeholders.

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