Platform as a Product London - Christmas Cracker!

Our last event of 2024! We have had a great year growing our community of like minded folks with an interest in product thinking in platform engineering. Really excited to bring another two amazing speakers in our December meetup with a focus on the organisational aspect of platform engineering. We promise some great conversations in the sessions and during the networking, along with a little festive spirit!

5:45pm - Welcome drinks

6pm - 6:45pm
Yippee-Ki-Yay: Platform Engineering, Team Topologies, and Lessons from Die Hard - Dipesh Patel

In the spirit of Die Hard, the greatest Christmas movie of all time, this talk will dive into the high-stakes world of platform engineering, where success relies on smart team structures and collaboration. Just as John McClane took on seemingly impossible odds, building a modern, scalable, and resilient platform demands the right tools, strategies, and people.

This session will explore how we used OpenShift to transform our organisation’s infrastructure, breaking down the journey through the lens of Team Topologies — from stream-aligned teams that own their services to enabling teams that provide critical support. Along the way, I'll highlight key Die Hard moments to illustrate how engineering challenges, like complex legacy systems and scaling infrastructure, mirror McClane’s battle against the odds.

By the end of this talk, you’ll walk away with actionable insights on platform architecture, fostering collaboration, and creating a DevOps culture that can scale to meet any challenge — because in platform engineering, as in Die Hard, success comes from people who never give up.

6:45pm - 7:15pm - Pizza, drinks and networking.

7:15pm - 8:00pm - The Platform as a point of failure for Product Operating Model transitions - Val Yonchev (Team Topologies)

Abstract: We see a big number of leaders and organizations taking the journey from project to product. The success of the Product Operating Model, as Marty Cagan refers to it, relies on a holistic approach, one which goes all the way down to the various layers of platforms. Unfortunately, as with many other ideas and books, it looks like many people are missing or skipping the best half of the book. As a result, we see failures in both Platform Engineering initiatives and Project-to-Product transitions.

In this session, we will discuss the part of Team Topologies approach which many overlook and as a result they end up blocking both Platform Engineering and Product Operating Model Initiatives. We will go over the key Team Topologies principles required for successful Platform Engineering approaches and strategies and last but not least look at how Product Operating Models can be supported better by platform strategies, in turn increasing the business case for Platform Engineering.

8pm - 9pm - Drinks and networking