How do you identify the highest impact projects on a platform team?

Impact is typically measured by customer and business value that product/project brings in. First step is to understand customer scenarios/workflows and associated pain-points and needs. Combine that with business opportunity of that investment, also having a close eye on the market and compete landscape. Finally, use rigorous prioritization to focus on highest ROI - take into account both customer/business value as well as associated cost to deliver. This is no different from a typical Product ...Read More

Identifying the highest impact projects on a platform team is like finding the rarest loot in a treasure chest—it takes strategy, analysis, and a bit of luck! Here are a few ways in which we can access the overall project impact (remember to wear a wholistic business lens vs approaching this as a platform challenge within your organisation) Strategic Alignment: We begin by meticulously assessing our platform's overarching strategic objectives. Projects closely aligned with these objectives are g ...Read More

Before thinking about the possible solutions/features we could build it is important to make sure that the problem is the right one to be focused on right now. There may be times that the biggest problems are just not solvable right now, or that the known best solution would take more time than customers are willing to wait for any solution even the best one. The best way I have found to balance this need between big long term improvements and small quick wins for the customers with with a RICE ...Read More

First, I start with defining the impact. In some cases, the business could benefit from cost savings, better SLAs, or faster time to market for new products and features. It all depends on the business and market conditions, so aligning with your executive team is the first thing I'd do. Next, I focus on capturing, analyzing, and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data inputs. Personally, I like to meet key stakeholders (PM/EM leads who lead other pillars) to understand their pain points ...Read More

Four signals I would use: Duplication When I see the same capability being rebuilt across multiple teams, that's the clearest signal of a platform gap. e.g. Identity, Notifications etc. Frequency of the ask, not volume of the noise I track how many distinct teams are asking for the same thing, not how loudly any one team is asking.  Tax on shipping What's slowing teams down right now? If authentication, permissions, data access, or observability keep appearing as blockers that's where platform i ...Read More