We’re all wired to chase the thrill of shipping shiny new features. It’s what our stakeholders see, what our customers ask for, and what often gets celebrated. But what if the most strategic move on your roadmap isn’t a feature at all?
Lately, there’s a growing conversation around ‘Platform Engineering’ and treating your internal developer platform as a critical product. Think about it: our engineering teams are the ‘users’ of our build, test, and deployment systems. When those systems are clunky, slow, and full of friction, we’re not just creating a frustrating developer experience (DevEx); we’re actively slowing down our ability to ship anything.
This isn’t about gold-plating internal tools. It’s a strategic decision to reduce the cognitive load on our engineers so they can focus on what they do best: solving complex user problems. Investing in a paved road—a smooth, automated path from idea to production—means future features get built faster, with higher quality, and less burnout. As PMs, we are uniquely positioned to champion this work, translating its long-term value into a language that the rest of the business can understand.
How do you currently balance prioritizing direct customer-facing features with investing in the internal platform and developer experience that enables them?