There’s a major conversation bubbling up about “platform engineering,” and it’s forcing us to rethink how we build and scale our products. For too long, internal tooling and infrastructure teams have been treated like reactive cost centers or IT support desks. But the best-performing orgs are making a crucial shift: they’re treating their platform as a product, with their internal developers as the customers.
When your platform team operates like a true product team, everything changes. They aren’t just closing tickets; they’re conducting user research with developers to understand their biggest bottlenecks. They’re creating a strategic roadmap focused on improving developer experience, reducing cognitive load, and accelerating the entire company’s ability to ship value. This isn’t just about making engineers happy—it’s about creating a multiplier effect on every other product team in the business.
Just as we obsess over customer feedback for our external products, we need the same rigor for our internal users. Systematically gathering insights from developers on Slack or Teams is critical for platform PMs to prioritize effectively. At https://leera.io, we see this firsthand: understanding user needs is the bedrock of any successful product, internal or external.
This shift from service-provider to product-enabler is a massive strategic advantage. So, how does your organization approach its platform and internal tooling?