Platform Leadership 101: Why 67% of Platforms Fail and How to Avoid It

This 45-minute talk explores why 67% of platform leaders struggle to build successful Internal Developer Platforms and provides practical strategies to avoid common pitfalls. Learn how the Platform as a Product approach and Minimum Viable Platform framework can launch and sustain your platform engineering initiatives. Discover effective techniques for advocating for your platform across organizational levels and establishing crucial alignment between platform teams and stakeholders. The session, hosted by Mallory Haigh, Humanitec's Principal Platform Advocate, also introduces a Platform Engineering Certification program designed to build shared understanding and help teams define a unified platform vision. Mallory brings extensive experience guiding hundreds of Platform Engineers and enterprise teams, with expertise in customer support, full-stack software engineering, and engineering management. Her approach combines human and technological elements to improve developer experience.