What Gordon Ramsay Can Teach Us About Developer Platforms
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a colleague about developer platforms, and we stumbled upon a surprisingly fitting analogy: building an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) is a lot like an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
If you haven’t seen the show, here’s the basic premise: struggling restaurants reach out to Gordon Ramsay for help. He shows up, takes one look at their bloated menu, inefficient kitchen, and unhappy customers, and immediately tells them what’s wrong. The pattern is almost always the same—too many dishes, slow service, poor quality, and a staff that’s completely overwhelmed. The solution? Cut the complexity, go back to basics, and build something great before expanding.
And guess what? The same logic applies to building an IDP.
The Overcomplicated Developer Platform
Many organizations fall into the same trap as these failing restaurants. They start building their internal developer platform with grand ambitions—trying to solve every problem at once. The result?
- A bloated feature set that tries to be everything to everyone.
- Unmaintainable complexity—teams struggle to keep up.
- Slow, unreliable deployments (the IT version of bad service).
- Unhappy developers who either avoid the platform or find workarounds (shadow IT).
Just like in Kitchen Nightmares, the organization has good intentions, but the execution is completely off. Instead of creating a streamlined, effective developer experience, they end up with a mess that nobody enjoys using.
Step One: Back to Basics
What’s the first thing Gordon Ramsay does when he steps into one of these failing restaurants? He throws out the giant, overcomplicated menu.
He cuts it down to just a few, well-chosen dishes that the kitchen can actually execute with quality and consistency. Instead of trying (and failing) to do everything, the restaurant focuses on getting a few things right before expanding.
This is exactly how you should think about your own Minimum Viable Platform.
Instead of trying to solve every problem at once, pick a few core developer needs and solve them well.
- What are the biggest pain points for developers today?
- Which processes slow them down the most?
- Where does automation provide the most value?
Start with a small, high-impact feature set, make sure it’s rock solid, and then expand based on actual needs—not assumptions or what you think is a cool feature to have.
Step Two: A Fresh Start, Not a Patchwork Fix
Another classic mistake in Kitchen Nightmares? Restaurants don’t just have bad food—they have a bad environment. The kitchen is a mess, the dining area is outdated, and the entire experience is unappealing. Gordon doesn’t just fix the menu—he revamps the entire restaurant to create a fresh start.
The same applies to developer platforms. If you’re trying to patch together a platform from legacy tools, outdated processes, and ad-hoc automation, you’re setting yourself up for failure. A successful IDP isn’t just about tools—it’s about packaging those tools into a seamless, easy-to-use product that people enjoy and choose to use.
Think of it as relaunching the restaurant, not just fixing the food.
- A great platform is a product. It should have clear onboarding, documentation, and a smooth user experience.
- If the experience is bad, developers won’t come back. Just like diners who had a bad meal, they’ll remember the frustration.
- Give it a proper launch. Just like a renovated restaurant needs a grand reopening, your platform needs a proper rollout to get teams excited.
Step Three: Iterate, Improve, Then Expand
One of the most satisfying parts of Kitchen Nightmares is seeing how restaurants evolve over time. Once they get the basics right, they can start expanding—adding new dishes or even perfect existing once even more, experimenting with specials, and attracting new customers.
This is exactly how your developer platform should grow.
- Start with a core set of valuable features and get developer feedback.
- Measure adoption—are people actually using it?
- Improve based on real-world usage.
- Once you have a solid foundation, add new features incrementally.
The worst thing you can do is try to expand too early. If the kitchen can’t handle the basics, adding more dishes will only make things worse. Likewise, if your platform isn’t working well at a small scale, adding more complexity will only cause more frustration.
Avoiding Your Own Kitchen Nightmare
If you’re building an Internal Developer Platform, don’t make the same mistakes as those struggling restaurants.
- Don’t start with a bloated menu. Pick a few key problems and solve them well.
- Don’t force a broken system to scale. Fix inefficiencies before expanding.
- Treat your platform like a product. A bad first impression will drive developers away.
- Iterate based on real feedback. Success comes from continuous improvement, not grand initial plans.
At the end of the day, an IDP should be like a great restaurant—a place developers want to go, where they get what they need quickly, and where the experience is simple but high-quality.
So before you launch your own Kitchen Nightmare of an overcomplicated, slow, and painful platform—take a step back. Cut the complexity. Start with the essentials. Make it great.
Because just like in the restaurant world, no one comes back for bad service.