Product Leaders playbook for winning at platform engineering | Weave Intelligence

Описание: Platform engineering doesn’t fail because it’s too technical, it fails when teams can’t prove its value. And product management is how that changes.

In this research interview, Sam sits down with Julie Rupert to explore what it really means to bring a product mindset into platform engineering. Drawing on her journey from Big Tech into retail platform teams, Julie shares how she learned to translate deeply technical work into outcomes that business leaders actually care about, revenue, cost, and impact. One message comes through loud and clear: money talks, and platform teams need better ways to tell their story.

The conversation digs into the role of product managers inside platform teams. Julie explains why shared language matters more than perfect roadmaps, how stakeholder communication often makes or breaks platform initiatives, and why proving value isn’t about dashboards, it’s about framing technical decisions in financial and strategic terms. They also unpack the tension between planned work and reality, including how “urgent care” models can help teams handle the unplanned without derailing long-term strategy.

Finally, Julie offers practical advice for new and aspiring platform product managers on how to ask better questions, earn confidence with technical teams, and navigate an evolving field where product, engineering, and business responsibilities increasingly overlap.

In this episode:

Why proving value is the hardest (and most important) part of platform engineering
How product managers translate technical capabilities into business outcomes
What a “product mindset” really means in internal platform teams
Building shared language between engineers, PMs, and stakeholders
Roadmapping for platforms: aligning business priorities with technical reality
Handling unplanned work without killing your strategy
Why asking the right questions beats having all the answers
Advice for new platform product managers entering the field
How confidence grows from understanding both tech and business

Learn more: https://weaveintelligence.io/

💬 “You can build great platforms - but if you can’t explain the value, it won’t matter.”