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.
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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.