In our pursuit to better support over 2000 engineers, we embarked on an initiative to build Nationale Nederlanden's (part of the NN group) Internal Development Platform (IDP) by incorporating Product Thinking alongside Spotify’s Backstage. This effort has been guided by key elements from the product thinking toolbox, including user empathy, feedback loops, and iterative development, to ensure our portal not only meets but exceeds the needs of our diverse engineering teams. Our experience with Backstage has been a learning-curve, allowing us to create a more cohesive ecosystem for our developers, where tools and services are seamlessly integrated, and information is easily accessible.

As we share our story, we will showcase practical applications of the product thinking toolbox, such as applying service blueprinting and assembling the right team for the job. In the second half, we will delve deep into Backstage. You can expect topics such as conducting a tech assessment, modeling for the software catalog, and exploring a lightweight data lake to unlock information hidden in information silos.

Through our story, we provide a roadmap to enhance your own development practices in a thoughtful, user-centered manner, utilizing technology to unlock untapped potential for your teams and engineers.