Content Club

About

Leads

• Bryan Ross
• TBD

Overview

What is Content Club?

Original initiative issue: https://github.com/cncf/tag-app-delivery/issues/781

The Content Club was created out of the challenge of how we grow attention of the great ideas that come out of the platforms working group. This gave me the idea of creating a “content club”, where we pick a shared topic for us to write about each month that we can then read/contrast/comment on. Anyone interested can contribute by creating or discussing content around that topic—articles, videos, blog posts, tutorials, or other formats.

Goals and Benefits

• Deepen Knowledge: By exploring the same topic together, from diverse perspectives, we collectively learn more and gain new insights.
• Community Engagement: Thematic alignment makes it easier to promote the topic as a group, amplifying individual contributions while supporting the broader mission of promoting best practices.
• Network Effect: Linking content around a shared theme creates a natural ‘ring’ of interconnected ideas, helping to drive interest and visibility for contributors and the topic itself.
• Content Inspiration: For those of us who benefit from prompts (like me!), this provides a focused starting point to spark creativity.

How It Works

• Topic Proposal: At the beginning of each month, a topic will be chosen.
• Content Creation: Participants can create and share their content by the end of the month.
• Sharing & Promotion: We’ll circulate and promote the content across our networks, driving more engagement.
• Feedback & Growth: Discuss lessons learned and consider how the shared perspectives can influence our working group’s direction.

Content Topics

February - Team Topologies in the Real World

• Bryan Ross - https://newsletter.bryanross.me/p/team-topologies-in-the-real-world
• Steve Fenton wrote this great piece about his real-world experiences of applying Team Topologies in a Product & Data team.
• Matt Menzenski explores the parallels between Team Topologies and Deep Work (two excellent books).
• Graziano Casto reminds us that while technical advances are important, the key to successful software development lies in how we organize and enable teams to work together effectively.
• Dipesh Patel wrote this fun piece comparing platform engineering to the worlds best Christmas movie.
• Ricardo Bemfica shows how Livelo applies Team Topologies principles by using developer experience surveys to shape platform strategy, ensuring teams are empowered through data-informed collaboration.

March - Metrics That Matter

• Bryan Ross - https://newsletter.bryanross.me/p/metrics-that-matter
• Kalle Sirkesalo takes a walk and shares his journey with metrics, from discovering how easily bonus-tied metrics get gamed, to learning how to set effective metrics that influence desired behaviours.
• Graziano Casto shares his view against blindly adopting frameworks like DORA in favour of tailoring metrics to outcomes specific to your business.

April - How can AI help your platform engineers?

• Bryan Ross - https://newsletter.bryanross.me/p/ai-strategy-for-platform-engineering
• Colin Lacy shared a short-form video to describe his vision of a platform enabled LLM.
• Kalle Sirkesalo created a long-form video where explores how autonomous agents are becoming more capable through retrieval-based memory, open source frameworks, and improved reasoning.
• Graziano Casto explains how GenAI can help developers navigate complex internal platforms by reducing cognitive load and easing tool fatigue.

May - What Happens When Platforms Become Mature

• Beyond Launch by Bryan Ross; How to move from “just shipped” to long-term value delivery and platform-as-a-product thinking
• The Problem of Success by Graziano Casto; When adoption becomes widespread, the original playbook starts to break— how can - platform teams adapt?
• Fleet Management by Abby Bangser; Drawing lessons from over-the-air car updates
• Talk by Kalle Sirkesalo (YouTube); A thoughtful look into platform maturity through a real-world lens, full of insights and practical takeaways.

June - “non-technical” Platform Engineering

• Bryan Ross - https://newsletter.bryanross.me/p/the-hard-problems-in-tech-arent-technical
• Atul discusses the broader organizational and cultural readiness required for successful platform adoption, emphasizing that platform engineering is as much about people and processes as it is about tools.
• Graziano’s “ 13 Atomic Habits Playbook for Platform Engineers” breaks down reproducible, small-scale practices that platform teams can adopt to improve consistency, collaboration, and impact.
• Kalle’s video explores the often-overlooked non-technical dimensions of platform success—such as effective communication, team alignment, and habit formation—through the lens of real-world engineering leadership.

July - Platform Engineering for Edge Computing

TBC

Schedule

Each month, a topic is selected for discussion and content creation. Members are encouraged to contribute articles, blog posts, videos, or other forms of content related to the topic.

Contributing and How To Join the Content Club

Please check the CNCF #platform-engineering Slack channel to begin collaborating!