IntercomProblem & solution
Intercom’s engineering enablement team transformed the company from a patchwork of legacy systems and recurring incidents into a stable infrastructure that empowers fast-moving product teams. The company learned that selecting core technologies is not enough without a clearly defined strategy for understanding, guiding their use, and investing in the teams behind them, as lacking this leads to persistent friction. They defined a dedicated core technology team, learned and standardized their tooling, and implemented approaches to hire and grow engineers who own the infrastructure. These efforts reduced operational friction and incident frequency, allowing the business to move more confidently. As a result, product teams run faster and the infrastructure is now a reliable foundation for growth.
Intercom faced operational challenges due to a patchwork of legacy systems and recurring incidents, which slowed product teams and created friction.
Define a core technology team, implement a strategy for understanding and standardizing core tooling, and invest in hiring and developing engineers to own and scale the infrastructure.
Without a clearly defined strategy for core technologies, they become a persistent source of friction.
A dedicated core technology team and standardized tooling can reduce operational friction and incident frequency.
Hiring and growing engineers who own the infrastructure is key to enabling business confidence and product team speed.
Intercom had a patchwork of legacy systems and recurring incidents that hindered product teams and caused operational friction.
They defined a core technology team, learned and standardized their tooling, and implemented approaches to hire and grow engineers.
Infrastructure became stable, product teams ran faster, and the business moved more confidently.
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