#106: Zero to Platform (Engineer)

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Zero to Platform (Engineer)

We have just launched part 2 of the Platform Engineering Certification track - Platform Engineering: MVP to IDP. You can now easily go from the Fundamentals to certified Platform Engineer in one bundle.

It covers the full journey from designing and developing your Minimum Viable Platform to demoing your Internal Developer Platform to stakeholders. I’m convinced it will be the most valuable contribution to platform engineering I’ve ever got the chance to make.

Let me explain why.

Excluding a few massive outliers spending tens of millions (or spending zero), the majority of platform teams I’ve worked with in 2024 cost around $2.5 to $5 million a year. On the low end, that’s $208,000 a month.

Of those teams, more than 40% didn’t measure anything. Most struggled with buy-in from security. And many were either desperately trying to convince their execs for funding or vice versa - had received funding and had no idea what to do with it.

Not to mention all those who were furthest along and yet had nothing more to show of their platform engineering than a half-baked Backstage implementation. 

Why does this matter? Because every one of those things means months of wasted time. And every month can cost $208,000.

That month it took security to sign off because they didn’t understand what you were trying to convince them of? $208k

Those 3 months you spent implementing Backstage to only have v1 of a service catalog and minimal real impact on your platform engineering goals? $624k

Your platform initiative getting shut down after 18 months because you didn’t measure and can’t prove value?

The course certainly isn’t a magic bullet. It can’t stop your boss from mandating you implement Backstage for a quick platform engineering win. And it can’t stop your execs from changing their minds 6 months from now.

But it can make sure you know exactly what you need to do. It can take the experience the community has had working on and looking at 100s of platforms over the last 4 years and give you, whether you’re a Junior Platform Engineer or a newly made Head of Platform Engineering, everything you need to dodge the mistakes everyone else is making.

If it can shave off even just 1 month of wasted time (and I think it can do more) for each team who takes it, then it might just be the most valuable thing the community has ever done.