Metrics as a Means to an End, Not the End Itself
During the last DevOps Days in Antwerp I attended an open space discussion on platform KPIs. The conversation revolved around the overwhelming number of things you can monitor in an internal developer platform (IDP), but the real question was: which metrics actually matter to management when it comes to platform adoption and value?
We, as a group, quickly arrived at a fundamental question: is it even up to us as engineers to define these metrics?
The reality is that no single metric can definitively prove a platform’s value—or at least none that provide 100% certainty. This realization led us to discuss the Platform as a Product paradigm. If your platform is a product, then it should be managed as one.
This got me thinking and pondering, ultimately leading to this post.
Shifting the Narrative: From Reporting to Investing
In a traditional product-driven company, securing investment is key to growth. For an internal developer platform, the investors are the company’s management—CIOs, CTOs, and CFOs. We need to convince them that the platform generates value, not just costs money.
Too often, platform teams fall into the trap of measuring and reporting purely technical metrics: uptime, number of runs, CPU and memory consumption, adoption rates, pipeline counts, and module usage. While these are useful for platform engineers, they rarely influence executive decision-making. Simply put: management doesn’t care about raw technical numbers—they care about business impact.
Instead of asking which metrics to provide to management, we should ask what they hope to gain from the platform. What are they measured on? What outcomes matter to them? If we align our reporting with their goals, we create an incentive for continued investment in the platform.
The “Dragons’ Den” Mentality
One of the most effective ways to frame this shift is to think of it as a “Dragons’ Den” or “Shark Tank” scenario.
- We, as platform teams, have a product.
- Management is our venture capital.
- They will only continue to invest if they see a return on investment (ROI).
To strengthen this relationship, we should identify the key business drivers for our investors. Are they focused on improving developer productivity? Reducing lead time? Increasing business agility? Cutting operational costs? Once we understand their goals, we can extract the right data from our platform to demonstrate how it contributes to those outcomes.
Asking the Right Questions
A powerful question to ask management and internal stakeholders is:
“What happens if we shut the platform down tomorrow? Would you still be able to operate at the same level of productivity? What would the consequences be?”
If the answer reveals major disruption, then the platform has clear business value. Our job is to quantify that value in a way that resonates with decision-makers.
Building a Symbiotic Relationship
The relationship between platform teams and management should be an enhancing one, not a battle for survival. By shifting from a reporting mindset to an investment mindset, we increase our chances of securing continuous funding and growing the platform as a strategic asset.
The key takeaway? Stop thinking of metrics as a way to justify the platform’s existence in technical terms. Start using them as a tool to help management see the value they want to see—so they keep investing in what we need to build.