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Platform Teams with Ganesh Srinivasan, Chief Product & Engineering Officer at Confluent

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Platform Teams with Ganesh Srinivasan, Chief Product & Engineering Officer at Confluent

Getting the timing of platform teams right, funding them, and the platform team mindset.

Gergely Orosz
Oct 12, 2021
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Platform Teams with Ganesh Srinivasan, Chief Product & Engineering Officer at Confluent

newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com

I don’t think anyone has platform teams fully figured out. We know they are especially important when scaling up fast-growing organizations, and they are key building blocks for all large tech companies. But how do you decide when to start your first platform team? How do you convince the C-level decision-makers to fund these? And what percentage of your engineers do you allocate to platform efforts?

I sat down with Ganesh Srinivasan, someone who has built several platform organizations, and has tackled all of these questions. We talked about:

  • What are platform teams and when do they come into play?

  • When is a good time to start a platform team, considering the growth stage of your company?

  • Funding platform teams. How can you get support from the business?

  • What % of platform investment is typical and why?

  • Platform engineering leaders: recruit or promote? A common question for most people starting platform teams. It goes for engineers as well, not just managers.

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