The problem shape

N teams each hand-rolling deploys, dashboards, and IaC = the same undifferentiated problem solved N times, with N different failure modes and weeks-to-production for every new service. The waste is structural, and mandates alone don't fix it — teams route around slow rules (shadow infra).

The golden path

A paved, self-service route from 'new repo' to 'running in production with dashboards and alerts' in under a day: template repository, pipeline included, IaC modules, sane security defaults. The strategic trick: adoption by attraction — teams take the paved road because it's the fastest one, not because a memo said so. Reserve hard mandates for true non-negotiables: security, compliance, data handling. Thin mandates stay enforceable precisely because they're few.

Platform as product

The platform team serves product teams as customers: user interviews, a roadmap, docs, support channels, adoption metrics. Without the product discipline it decays into 'the infra team's rules wiki' — technically present, organisationally ignored. (Team Topologies: a platform team underpinning stream-aligned teams — the constructive application of your Conway drill.)

Measuring it

Time-to-first-deploy for a new service; % of services on the paved road; ticket volume to the platform team (should fall — self-service is the point). DORA metrics (your Principal drill) improving across product teams is the business case written in numbers.