Platform as a Product

Chapter 5. Platform Team Dynamics: Builders, Users, and Contributors

When organizations begin building an IDP, they often picture two primary groups: the platform engineers (or builders), who will design, build, and maintain it, and the application developers (or users), who will consume it to develop and run their software.

As discussed in coauthor Cat Morris’s post “Platform Producers and Consumers: Beware the Missing Persona When Building an IDP”, both roles are essential, but this binary view overlooks a crucial third player who acts as a contributor, without whom platforms often fail to evolve: the vendor. Because a “vendor” can be internal to the organization, this role is also known as the producer.

The Three Key Personas

Each of the three roles has a distinct purpose in the technology ecosystem:

Platform engineers

These professionals design and evolve the platform’s core capabilities. They integrate tools and workflows, orchestrate services, and ensure that the platform delivers a consistent developer experience. Their work balances scalability, security, and usability as they create the paved road that developers will follow.

App developers

The developers consume the platform. They build, deploy, and operate applications using its capabilities, without needing to master every underlying system. They value speed, autonomy, and reliability, and they provide feedback on what helps and what hinders their delivery.

Vendors or producers

These individuals or firms provide ...