Platform as a Product

By the end

What you'll build

• Identify and segment the internal users of a platform capability and state what each group is trying to achieve
• Run a developer discovery interview and turn the notes into evidence a roadmap can rest on
• Prioritise platform work using cost of delay, cognitive load and support burden together
• Write a platform service contract that states support level, versioning and deprecation terms
• Present a platform value story supported by a small set of honest, defensible measures
• Choose and justify a funding model for a platform capability

Curriculum

What's inside

7 modules · 35 lessons

1. 01

   Treating the platform as a product

   5 lessons
   • Users, not tickets: defining who the platform actually serves
   • Product thinking compared with project thinking for internal tooling
   • The internal market problem: users who cannot easily leave
   • Writing a value proposition for a platform capability
   • Who the platform servesmatch pairs
2. 02

   Discovery with internal users

   5 lessons
   • Running a developer discovery interview without leading the witness
   • Mapping the developer journey from idea to production
   • Friction and workaround archaeology
   • Turning research notes into evidence others can check
   • Discovery without leadingfill blank
3. 03

   Roadmaps and prioritisation

   5 lessons
   • Building a platform roadmap you can defend in front of engineers
   • Prioritising with cost of delay and cognitive load
   • Declining bespoke requests without losing trust
   • Balancing keep-the-lights-on work with new capability
   • Ordering the next roadmap cyclesequence order
4. 04

   Interfaces, versions and deprecation

   5 lessons
   • Writing a platform service contract your users can rely on
   • Versioning a paved road
   • Deprecation with a migration path, not an announcement
   • Defining what supported means at each tier
   • Retiring version 1 of the pipeline templatescenario
5. 05

   Making value visible

   5 lessons
   • Telling the platform's value story with evidence rather than opinion
   • Choosing a small set of measures that resist gaming
   • Internal communications, release notes and office hours
   • Handling the build, buy or assemble conversation
   • Evidence, measures and channelsmatch pairs
6. 06

   Funding and lifecycle governance

   5 lessons
   • Chargeback, showback and free at point of use: choosing a funding model
   • Building an investment case for a platform capability
   • Stakeholder management across engineering and finance
   • Reviewing, sunsetting and retiring a capability
   • Funding models and the investment casefill blank
7. 07

   Practice and check

   5 lessons
   • What is missing, and what goes wrongmatch pairs
   • Retiring a capability people depend onsequence order
   • Product language for platform teamsfill blank
   • The portal your sponsor asked forscenario
   • Course quizquiz

The shape of it

How this course works