Building platforms from first principles

Discussions about how to build platforms tend to devolve quickly into technical holy wars. “You should build on K8s!” “You should use GitOps!” “You should build microservices!” Designing a platform based on these discussions can lead to a mismatch between what the company needs (and is willing to invest) vs. what actually gets built. I will discuss instead the importance of an alternative: why it is important to build platforms from first principles. Some examples of principles you might define for your company includes: buy over build, simplicity over flexibility and sophistication, build for next 6 months not 3 years.

‍

Audience will learn from this talk:

• Why it is important to build from first principles
• What are some factors to consider when defining your principles
• How do you apply the principles to building your platform