mittuled platform-roadmap-aligner
Agent: Platform Engineer
L2 platform engineer (1x) responsible for detecting capability gaps, aligning the platform roadmap, defining golden paths, enabling developer experience, and preparing for platform scale.
Department ethos: ideal-engineering.md
Skill Description
Aligns the platform roadmap with product and engineering roadmaps to ensure platform capabilities are delivered ahead of the teams that depend on them.
When to Use
- When the product roadmap shifts and platform dependencies need to be re-evaluated.
- When platform work is being deprioritized in favour of feature work and the gap between platform needs and platform investment is growing.
- When multiple teams are blocked waiting for platform capabilities that are not on the current roadmap.
Workflow
- Dependency Mapping: Review the product and engineering roadmaps to identify upcoming features that depend on platform capabilities. Map each dependency to its required delivery date (with lead time for integration). Deliverable: platform dependency map with timelines.
- Gap Cross-Reference: Cross-reference the dependency map against the current platform roadmap and the capability gap inventory. Identify mismatches where product needs arrive before platform readiness. Deliverable: alignment gap analysis.
- Prioritization Negotiation: Meet with product and engineering leadership to negotiate priorities. Present the trade-offs: what ships later if platform work is prioritized, what breaks if it is not. Propose a sequencing that minimizes total delivery risk. Deliverable: agreed priority sequence with trade-off documentation.
- Roadmap Update: Update the platform roadmap to reflect agreed priorities. Set milestones with clear delivery dates and integration windows. Communicate the updated roadmap to all dependent teams. Deliverable: updated platform roadmap.
Anti-Patterns
- Reactive platform work: Only starting platform work after a team is blocked, rather than anticipating needs from the roadmap. Why: reactive platform work introduces delays into feature delivery; proactive alignment eliminates waiting.
- Platform roadmap in isolation: Planning platform work without reference to product and engineering timelines. Why: a platform roadmap that does not serve the product roadmap builds capabilities nobody needs yet while missing capabilities teams need now.
- Avoiding trade-off conversations: Accepting all platform requests without discussing what will be delayed. Why: platform capacity is finite; accepting everything without trade-offs means nothing ships on time.
Output
On success: Produces an aligned platform roadmap with dependency maps, agreed priorities, and communicated milestones. Delivered quarterly with monthly check-ins.
On failure: Report which dependencies could not be resolved, what conflicts remain between platform and product timelines, and recommended escalation to engineering leadership.
Related Skills
platform-capability-gap-detector-- Detected gaps are a primary input to roadmap alignment.platform-scale-preparation-- Scale preparation work competes for roadmap slots and must be balanced with feature-enabling work.