Why your platform engineering strategy needs a communications upgrade

Picture this: your platform engineering team spends months building a tool designed to speed up deployments and reduce errors, only to find that, three months post-launch, adoption remains low. You're not alone. According to the 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed their business outcome targets.

The issue likely isn't technical. It's the lack of an effective communication strategy.

Without clear communication, potential users won't understand how the platform simplifies their jobs or aligns with business goals, and therefore won't adopt it. In Australia, where tech investment increasingly demands clear ROI and usability, this disconnect can hinder even the most effective solutions. A strategic communications plan can close the gap between platform engineering efforts and business impact.

Develop a launch communications strategy

Launching a platform without a communications plan is like shipping code with no documentation. When platform teams prioritise technical excellence but overlook communication, they risk creating a barrier between the platform's capability and its business impact. Users won't adopt what they don't understand, and leaders won't support what they can't measure.

A strong launch message lays the foundation for adoption and engagement.

Clearly define the problem the platform solves: To overcome engineers' skepticism of new tools that may introduce complexity, your communication should clearly articulate how the platform simplifies their work. Highlight its ability to reduce cognitive load, minimise context switching, enhance access to documentation, and accelerate development cycles. Present these advantages as concrete improvements to daily workflows, rather than abstract concepts. For example, quantify the benefit by showing how automated environment setup can save each developer 5-7 hours weekly.

Proactively identify and address areas of resistance: Engineers are often concerned that new platforms will disrupt their preferred tools or established workflows. Your communications should directly address these concerns by detailing integration capabilities, outlining clear migration paths, and explaining the support options available. Being transparent about current limitations alongside your roadmap will build credibility and help manage expectations.

Enlist platform advocates to spread your message: Tap into the influence of respected technical colleagues who have contributed to the platform's development or were early adopters. Their endorsements are more impactful than any official messaging. Facilitate opportunities for these champions to demonstrate the platform's capabilities through lightning talks, recorded demos, or pair programming sessions. These peer-to-peer interactions allow potential users to observe practical applications firsthand and ask candid questions in a low-pressure environment.

Take Deakin University, for example. Its enablement team communicated the value of its unified DevSecOps platform to internal teams and built standardized processes and reusable templates to share with the broader university community and citizen developers, driving innovation and collaboration. Consequently, they saw adoption soar, cut manual work by 60%, and now scan 100% of code for quality in major projects.

Establish continuous communication channels

Once you've launched the platform, you'll need to continue communicating with users on an ongoing basis. Let's explore the key communication channels that should be part of every platform engineering team's strategy.

Documentation
Clear documentation is essential for adoption. It reduces support needs and speeds up onboarding by answering three questions: What problem does the platform solve? What benefits can users expect? Where can they learn more? Structure documentation around the user journey, not the system. Include a simple "getting started" guide, a searchable knowledge base, and regular updates.

Team blog
An internal blog helps your team share deeper insights, like technical details, user tips, and success stories. It complements quick updates and helps users understand both how to use the platform and why key choices were made.

Health dashboard
A live health dashboard fosters trust by displaying known issues and progress on their resolution. It signals transparency and accountability, core to user confidence. Just be sure it's accurate and updated; nothing undermines trust like false "all green" signals during an outage.

Real-time messaging

Your team should maintain a presence wherever your users naturally collaborate, which often means real-time chat platforms like Slack. Chat builds relationships with users through accessibility and responsiveness, creating a community around your platform. Here are a few golden rules teams can follow to ensure they're building a good relationship with their users:

• Respond to queries promptly. Chat moves quickly. Teams should respond to user questions within 30-60 minutes during business hours to maintain engagement. If users are chatting in real time about your product, your team should be part of the conversation.
• Present a consistent voice to users. Treat your organisation's messaging systems like a customer-facing support channel. Maintain a separate internal channel for engineers to debate and resolve conflicting viewpoints openly. This prevents public disagreements among engineers, which can erode credibility.
• Document solutions publicly. When an inquiry is closed, engineers should share the resolution in the channel. This practice captures valuable learnings so other users can benefit from the shared knowledge.
• Open support tickets for users. For simple questions, chat is perfect. However, teams should capture more complicated requests in issue management software. To enhance the user experience, ensure that engineers proactively create tickets for users, rather than directing them to "open a ticket."

Communication is core to platform success

Australia's tech leaders aren't just investing in platforms; they're investing in outcomes. And outcomes hinge on communication. The most effective platform engineering teams across the country are those that build strong communication foundations alongside technical infrastructure, enabling thoughtful conversations and collaboration with developers.

Whether you're working in Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth, the message is clear: how you talk about your platform matters as much as how it performs. Communication drives adoption. Adoption builds momentum. And momentum attracts the investment and support needed to scale. When done right, your platform becomes more than a tool; it becomes a driver of business transformation.