Most teams build platforms layer by layer, often from the bottom up. But what if we flip the perspective?
When building a platform, it helps to think in planes rather than layers. This perspective separates concerns like control, data, and developer experience into distinct planes, providing a clearer mental model and a more scalable way to reason about platform design.

In this talk, we introduce the planes concept as a new way of looking at platform engineering, one that changes how we approach building and operating platforms at scale.
We then reverse engineer a real Kubernetes platform, starting at the top with the developer portal and working our way down. Like deconstructing a burger from the upper bun, we explore how each visible piece maps to underlying services, components, and architectural decisions.

This talk is not about building something new. It’s about understanding what you already have and how to make it better by looking at it from a new angle.