Is your platform worth building?

Platform teams are the craze in the software industry right now. Every team wants to be the platform team to unblock other teams to focus on their core problems. Sometimes there are platform teams that unblock other platform teams which power other platforms and so on.

As a senior leader it is critical to sniff out quickly whether your platform truly provides value. If it does not, it is important to either make it one or shut it down.

The Superpower Test

What superpower does Thor have? He also possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability and immunity to most diseases. Imagine Thor fights a random dude on the street without those super power, he may still get the job done of winning a fight with his sheer strength, but there is no awesomeness.

Now let us apply this analogy to software platforms. Imagine a world where your platform does not exist. Evaluate the situation of all the other teams that depend on your platform. Think about what they would be doing instead.

Now imagine that they have access to your platform - Do they instantly feel like they have a super power to move fast and crush their goals? (think speed, agility, durability form the Thor example)

If the answer to that question is “Absolutely feels like a super power” then you are on the right track. If it is somewhere in between, there is large room for improvement. If it feels like a burden, you are doing something wrong and you should re-evaluate.

If you are pitched to create a platform team, do the “super power test” before creating one.