Jan 16
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🎙️ Code to Culture: Platform Engineering Unpacked for Enterprises — Episode 3: Golden Paths vs Developer Freedom What happens when developers don’t want to follow the “Golden Path”? What if they value freedom over consistency? And what if the tools we select in our internal developer platforms aren’t what developers want? In this episode of Code to Culture, host Saim Safdar and co-host Courtney Nickerson (Head of Community at Nirmata and Kyverno Project) sit down with Kat Morris, Product Manager at Syntasso, and Jouke Visser, Head of Frontend Platforms Initiative, to unpack one of the most debated topics in Platform Engineering today, balancing standardization with developer autonomy. 💡 We explore: - What if devs don’t want to “do” Platform Engineering? - How do we resolve conflicts between Golden Paths and developer preferences? - How can we convince management to fund PE, just a few years after the DevOps push? - What does it take to turn developers into fans of platform teams? - Who owns the decision when it comes to building these paths, and who gets to veto them? Whether you’re a platform engineer, team lead, or product manager, this episode dives into the human side of platform building culture, collaboration, and the fine line between empowerment and enforcement. 📺 Watch previous episodes: Ep 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgh9G1HqQ9Q&t=490s Ep 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxUMGyGsbwY&t=149s 🔗 Subscribe to @cloudnativefm and @CloudTherapist for all upcoming episodes in this six-part series! ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🤝 Book a Call 🤝 ▬▬▬▬▬▬ If you'd like to be our next guest, schedule a convenient time slot via https://calendly.com/saimsafder14/30min. We'll discuss further details. Alternatively, you can reach out to me via Twitter or LinkedIn (details below). ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 👋 Contact me 👋 ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ➡ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cloudnativeboy ➡ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saim-safder ➡ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cloudnativeboy.bsky.social ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔔 Other Channels 🔔 ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🎤 Cloud Native Islamabad: @CloudNativeIslamabad ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⏱️ Chapters ⏱️ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 0:00 Intro 0:15 Agenda 0:53 Courtney returns for Episode 3 1:16 Reminder: Episodes 1 & 2 are already live 1:57 Jouke Visser joins the show 2:28 Kat Morris joins from Syntasso 3:28 Why Golden Paths? 4:01 Defining the “Golden Path” – what is it, really? 5:22 Jouke’s perspective from the frontend world 5:34 Why standardization is important, but risky 7:08 When Golden Paths become mandatory 7:26 The trade-offs between developer happiness & organizational safety 9:20 Why do golden paths have to differ by org size & context 12:00 Practical starting point 14:00 Common platform failure: building things teams won’t adopt 17:23 Modernizing legacy stacks and making migrations smoother 18:34 Selling the value: developer productivity + business outcomes 19:30 Are golden paths different for startups vs enterprises? 23:20 Jouke’s frontend perspective 25:10 The central tension: consistency vs accelerated innovation 26:20 Roadmap suggestions for adopting golden paths 30:06 Lessons learned from past CI/CD experiences 32:00 IDP's capabilities for Cross-Team collaboration 34:30 Golden bricks vs Golden Path 35:30 Filling gaps in IDP's dev story? 36:34 Motivation behind Frontend platforms 45:00 Rapid Fire 45:40 How much voice devs have in Golden Paths are designed? 46:20 Who can veto IDP's capabilities? 48:30 Transparency: who can build/participate in IDP 51:50 Frontend Platform where are we heading 53:30 What's next Syntasso is building for platform teams 55:27 Cortney's Key takeaways 57:15 Big thanks to our panelists 58:15 Outro