I've been putting together a series on Defining a Platform Engineering organization, based on my experience at Netflix and now most recently Doma. My latest article talks about the importance of developing a vision that clarifies what your organization will focus on, and how to find those "pebbles in the shoes" that your engineers really need removed. Also a big shout out to @Aeris for help with this latest article. I hope you enjoy it! (I have two more coming out, I'd love any input or feedback to help make these very useful for folks)

Really great reads 🙌, looking forward to the rest of the series, thanks for sharing the question lists as well super helpful, there was a comment i found interesting though, on how exec levels worry more about the big picture and we should be asking about what worries them, I agree, but at the same time I also think they should be doing the same thing to us, from my point of view it would be like a general not asking their sergeants whats going on in the ground ( although that happens a lot as well ) 😂, think of that scene in gladiator with Maximus fighting along with his troops, the troops seeing him fighting along side them and showing interest in them made them respect him more as a leader.

Thanks for the feedback! This is an interesting question that warrants a lot more discussion, but here are some quick thoughts: I agree with you 100% that leadership should probe for more context. Some do, but some don't. In my experience the ones that don't aren't uninterested, but rather they do not because they want to maximize the decision making at lower levels. They may not ask lots of detailed questions in order to not come off as micromanaging, thus discouraging independent decision (and risk) taking. Perhaps your point is a bit more that leadership should probe for signals that information (i.e. concerns) aren't being communicated up. On that, I would very much agree with you, and I've seen signs of that from reports from colleagues.

Ya I meant more about "Perhaps your point is a bit more that leadership should probe for signals that information (i.e. concerns) aren't being communicated up. On that, I would very much agree with you, and I've seen signs of that from reports from colleagues."

I recently joined a community that is working on tools for feedback to help amplify those signals. It's a big problem. https://getgrow.io

Its something I have rarely seen in companies I have worked at

Yeah, I'd agree. It used to be very common at Netflix, but in recent years it's taken a sharp turn away from that.

Great article 🫡

Thank you!