Platform Engineering: From Theory to Practice • Liz Fong-Jones & Lesley Cordero

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted. http://gotopia.tech Read the full transcription of this interview here: https://gotopia.tech/articles/384 Liz Fong-Jones - Field CTO at Honeycomb.io Lesley Cordero - Staff Software Engineer, Tech Lead at The New York Times RESOURCES Liz https://bsky.app/profile/lizthegrey.com https://github.com/lizthegrey https://linkedin.com/in/efong https://www.lizthegrey.com Lesley https://www.lesleycordero.com https://twitter.com/clesleycode https://github.com/clesleycode https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleycordero Videos https://www.alex-hidalgo.com https://www.honeycomb.io/blog/most-important-developer-productivity-metric-build-times DESCRIPTION Liz and Lesley explore the evolution of platform engineering from its DevOps and SRE roots. They discuss the challenges of building effective developer platforms, the importance of psychological safety and evidence-based prioritization, the complexities of open source sustainability, and the delicate balance between centralized platform teams and developer autonomy. The conversation covers practical insights on documentation automation, onboarding strategies, the manager-engineer career pendulum, and why treating platform work as a service rather than a mandate is crucial for organizational success. RECOMMENDED BOOKS Adkins, Beyer, Blankinship, Lewandowski, Oprea & Stubblefield • Building Secure and Reliable Systems • https://amzn.to/4n0bjae Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones & George Miranda • Observability Engineering • https://amzn.to/38scbma Beyer, Murphy, Rensin, Kawahara & Thorne • The Site Reliability Workbook • https://amzn.to/3IwsiOl Kelly Shortridge & Aaron Rinehart • Security Chaos Engineering • https://www.verica.io/sce-book NoInspiring Tech Leaders - The Technology Podcast Interviews with Tech Leaders and insights on the latest emerging technology trends. Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify Bluesky Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Facebook CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel to get early access to videos & other perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.tech SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!