Engineering Culture by InfoQ cover image

Engineering Culture by InfoQ

Engineering Excellence as a Journey: Platform Engineering, Culture, and Technical Leadership

Feb 21, 2025
Ganesh Datta, CTO and co-founder of Cortex, shares his insights on building excellent engineering organizations. He discusses the importance of treating platform engineering as a product, emphasizing the need for a product-centric mindset. Ganesh highlights how to cultivate a positive organizational culture through accountability and clear goals. He also explores the evolving concept of continuous production readiness and its impact on microservices. Finally, he offers valuable advice for new leaders transitioning from technical roles to leadership.
28:37

Episode guests

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Quick takeaways

  • Engineering excellence is an ongoing journey that fosters a culture of continuous improvement and accountability in organizations.
  • Treating platform engineering as a product enhances developer productivity by prioritizing user needs and delivering genuine value through incremental improvements.

Deep dives

Understanding Excellence as a Continuum

Excellence in engineering organizations is described as a constantly evolving journey rather than a fixed destination. Success is measured by the ability to operate efficiently, securely, and reliably, while driving business value through engineering practices. Ganesh emphasizes that organizations should continuously strive to improve their processes, reflecting on their past achievements to gauge progress. This view fosters a culture where striving for excellence becomes a part of everyday operations rather than just a periodic goal.

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