From Plate to Platform: How Tech Teams Can Cook Up Customer Satisfaction Like Top Chefs

A tech team and a restaurant have more in common than you might think — especially when it comes to keeping customers happy.

The similarity

They both have dependencies

For a restaurant to whip up your favorite dish, they need ingredients like meat and vegetables. Similarly, an in-house tech team often relies on other tech teams or components to keep its products running smoothly. For example, an in-house team that owns a data reporting system may depend on another in-house team that owns the data pipeline (e.g., Airflow) and computing engines (e.g., Spark).

Both rely on their dependencies to deliver essential services in a timely manner. If there’s a hiccup with these supplies, both the kitchen and the data reporting team can face challenges.

Customers can be mad at you — even if it’s not your fault

Imagine going to a restaurant for your favorite meal, only to find out they can’t serve it because an ingredient is missing. Even though it’s not their fault, you’d probably still be disappointed — especially if you were really looking forward to it.