On Being Glue and Grease: Building a Global Frontend Platform
How platform teams function as glue binding organizations together and grease reducing friction, through the lens of building a global frontend platform.
This talk combines two themes I’m passionate about: platform engineering and the role of staff+ engineers as organizational connectors.
The Glue and Grease Metaphor
Platform teams, like staff+ engineers, serve two critical functions. They act as glue, binding teams and systems together and creating cohesion across the organisation. And they act as grease, reducing friction so teams can deliver value without getting stuck on infrastructure problems.
Building a Global Frontend Platform
Drawing on experience building frontend platforms at scale, this talk explores what makes a successful frontend platform and how to balance standardization with team autonomy. I also dig into the organizational dynamics of platform adoption and how to measure success beyond technical metrics.
The underlying theme throughout is treating platform as a product, putting developer experience first, and remembering that building trust across distributed teams is as important as the technical work.