Platform Guild Transformation

Scaling Olympus Through Organizational Evolution

From Building the House to Providing the Bricks
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Current Challenge

The Reality

Given Olympus's current organizational complexity, implementing major structural changes quickly enough to impact v2.0/v3.0 is impossible.

Current State

  • Platform teams as bottlenecks
  • Complex dependencies
  • Unclear accountability
  • Waterfall processes

Our Vision

  • Platform as tool providers
  • End-to-end squad capabilities
  • Clear ownership
  • Agile delivery
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The Platform Guild Transformation

Transform platform engineering and platform stream into a Platform Guild

Core Principle

FROM

"Building the House"

Platform teams build everything themselves

TO

"Providing the Bricks"

Platform teams create tools for others to build

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Platform Guild Structure

Included Teams

New Role: Tool providers and gatekeepers who establish standards for building—rather than building everything themselves

🔧 Tool Creation

Build tools for streams and squads to develop end-to-end capabilities

📋 Standards Setting

Establish guidelines for how others should build

🚀 Scalability

Enable the system to scale without bottlenecks

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Clear Accountability Model

Single Point of Responsibility: Stream Lead owns all issues and outcomes

Leadership Structure

Stream Level

Product person leads the stream for release increments

Squad Level

Project person leads the squad for smaller increments

Engineering Reporting

Engineering personnel report to the stream/squad leader for proper authority and decision-making

Alignment Principle: Engineering serves product development, with architects and technical leadership supporting product needs—or being replaced if unable to meet requirements.

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Implementation Approach

🎯 Immediate Action: Next 3 Weeks

Implement a single, actionable step that encompasses both organizational and process changes

Critical Success Elements

📈 Delivery Speed

Time from concept to deployment

🎯 Quality

End-to-end capability effectiveness

🔄 Dependencies

Cross-team dependency reduction

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Thoughtcap Support & Early Results

Our Contribution

  • Documentation Leadership: Platform Engineering, Clinical Data Platform, and OS code
  • AI & Automation: Accelerate transition processes
  • Interface Contracts: Automated implementation already begun
PR Initiative Template Testing shows promising results in two key areas

⭐ Technical Excellence

Maintaining high standards throughout transformation

👁️ Dependency Visibility

Better understanding of cross-team relationships

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Comprehensive Mapping Deliverables

Goal: Transition from waterfall to end-to-end agile delivery system

Thoughtcap Mapping Services

1. Outcome Maps

Visualize desired business outcomes and success metrics

2. Value Stream Maps

Current and future state analysis of value delivery

3. Dependency Maps

Identify and visualize all cross-team dependencies

4. Flow Roadmaps

Organize insights, actions, and ownership into improvement plans

All deliverables powered by AI automation tools with modest budget requirements
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Addressing Key Questions

How does this differ from current interface contracts?

Our goal extends beyond mapping current interactions. We're fundamentally shifting the organizational approach to agile delivery, not reinforcing existing waterfall practices.

Who will own and prioritize the guild's backlog?

A dedicated product or project lead, depending on scope, ensures clear prioritization driven by product value and business objectives.

Will current architects and technical leads lose authority?

Not necessarily. Their role evolves to focus on guiding, supporting, and ensuring adherence to standards rather than directly building each component. They'll be measured on their ability to enable efficient delivery across teams.

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Individual Impact Analysis

👨‍💻 Joe Murray

Platform Technical Lead
Shift from direct builder to curator and reviewer; critical role in defining golden paths and architecture standards

🏗️ Paul Urban

Chief Architect
Evolving from centralized decision-making to mentoring, standard-setting, and enabling stream success

⚙️ Michael Heitmann

Platform/DevOps Lead
Leadership role standardizing CI/CD, infra-as-code, and developer workflows

📊 Anton

Data Stream Lead
Increased autonomy consuming platform services; greater clarity on data contracts ownership

🔒 Phil Behrens

Security/Compliance
Policy curation and review; compliance frameworks embedded in automated templates

📋 Dan

Stream Leadership
Clarified accountability for delivery outcomes and escalation responsibility

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Chuck's Strategic Transformation

Platform Infrastructure & Operational Excellence

Current State

  • Hands-on infrastructure builds
  • Direct issue resolution
  • Shared operational responsibilities
  • Tactical firefighting focus

Transformed Role

  • Setting operational standards
  • Reliability & quality gates
  • Clear infrastructure accountability
  • Strategic enablement leadership

Success Metrics for Chuck

📊 Reliability

MTTR, uptime, SLOs/SLAs

🎯 Enablement

Standards adoption rates

😊 Experience

Platform NPS scores

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Additional Team Transformations

Matko (Interim TPM/Product Owner)

Coordinating documentation, metrics baselining, training, and ensuring successful team onboarding

Jakov & Josip (Connector Squad Engineers)

Benefiting from clear, frictionless platform onboarding and reduced dependency wait times

Manuela & Armaghan (Insights & Analytics)

Improved clarity around data streaming tools, capabilities, and integration guidelines from guild

🎯 Chuck's Specific Support from Thoughtcap

  • Operational Documentation: Comprehensive self-service infrastructure guides
  • Automation Tools: Infrastructure reliability metrics tracking
  • Infrastructure Contracts: Clearly defined guidelines and standards
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Next Steps

🚀 Ready to Begin

We're here to discuss the specific first step toward this transformation vision

Discussion Points

  • What should be our initial 3-week implementation step?
  • Which platform teams are ready to pilot the guild model?
  • How can we best support the transition with minimal disruption?
  • What success metrics should we establish for the pilot?

Immediate Actions Required

✅ Define the specific first step
✅ Identify pilot team(s)
✅ Establish success metrics
✅ Begin transformation process

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