Platform teams provide the tools for other teams

So that other teams can be more capable at a certain thing

Source

The design systems team! The user research team! ProductOps! The infrastructure team!

These teams are platform teams. Their tools and output are usable by other teams so that those teams can do a certain thing well.

CPJ recently wrote How Capabilities Evolve. It’s great!

He talks about how it’s healthy to think of a matrixed capability team (R&D, Customer Strategy) as on its way to becoming a “platform team.” These platform teams provide an API that other teams use to be more capable at a certain thing.

Platform teams provide other teams the tools to better do X [design/infrastructure/understand their customer]. A platform team’s “customer” is internal.

I think of these as “Platform Teams” – teams that build things that improve business performance. Things that raise the bar. Things that allow businesses to do things they weren’t able to do before.

I think his insights on platform teams in large orgs apply to smaller orgs too. At least in my experience.

Creating a strategy “platform team” in a 30-person org