#116 - Exploring Platform Engineering feat. Camille Fournier // CTO @ Open Athena & Author @ O'Reilly Media

alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

Platform Teams and DevOps Optimization: Insights from Camille Fournier on platform engineering, career growth, and CTO strategies for success.

How do you create an effective platform team and optimize DevOps? Tobi interviews Camille Fournier about her career, technical insights, and best practices in platform engineering. Camille shares her journey from building her own computers and installing Linux in high school to becoming Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and authoring influential books for engineers 📚.

👩‍💻 Camille's early fascination with computers and engineering, including building her own systems and installing Linux 📚 Authoring 'The Manager's Path' and 'Platform Engineering' 🌐 Understanding platform engineering and its evolution from DevOps 🚀 Challenges and strategies in platform engineering for larger companies 💡 Key advice for CTOs on starting and managing successful platform teams

Listen here

00:00 Welcome to the Alphalist Podcast 01:09 Introducing Camille Fournier 02:04 Camille's Journey into Engineering 04:37 The Fascination with Platform Engineering 07:43 The Evolution of DevOps and Platform Teams 14:48 Defining Platform Engineering 18:54 Building Effective Platforms in Diverse Organizations 30:35 The Importance of Trust in Platform Teams 33:33 The Role of Product Managers in Platform Products 34:12 Customer Focused Mindset in Platform Engineering 35:02 Measuring Success and Metrics in Platform Teams 35:53 Communicating Platform Success to Leadership 40:22 The Importance of Recognizing Engineering Work 44:31 Avoiding Overengineering in Platform Teams 48:19 Leadership Challenges in Platform Engineering 55:22 Advice for Aspiring Platform Engineers 59:42 Final Thoughts and Reflections