System design is more than scalable architecture - it's strategy in disguise.
In my previous post, Simplexity: 10 System Design Lessons, I explored how small system decisions can have massive long-term impacts. But great design doesn’t live in a vacuum. It happens in context, with strategy, people, and priorities pulling in every direction.
That’s where Atlassian’s Enterprise Strategy and Planning (ESP) model comes in.
🎯 What Is ESP?
ESP is Atlassian’s approach to making strategy actionable by managing six interconnected facets:
- Goals – What success looks like
- Work – Tasks, projects, and deliverables
- Talent – The people behind the execution
- Funds – CapEx and OpEx allocations
- Systems – Tech that enables strategy
- Updates – Progress signals (status, outcomes)
Instead of viewing these in isolation, Atlassian proposes a "strategy cube" - a model where you can rotate between these facets to ask better questions and drive better outcomes.
But how does that help developers?
🔧 Bridging System Design with ESP
Let’s map some key lessons from Simplexity to ESP principles:
| Simplexity Lesson | ESP Tie-In | Why It Matters to Developers |
|---|---|---|
| Design for change | Systems, Updates | Feedback loops allow resilient, real-time adaptability. |
| Work backward from impact | Goals, Talent | Good design starts from the problem - business alignment matters. |
| Favor composition | Work, Systems | Composable systems reflect flexible focus areas. |
| Think in layers | Talent, Systems | Abstraction should match team skills and future evolution. |
| Remove premature constraints | Funds, Systems | Budget and architecture must support exploration, not block it. |
| Don’t scale too soon | Funds, Updates | Track real usage before investing in scale. |
💡 Actions Developers Can Take
1. Treat Goals Like Design Constraints
Design around business goals just like you would around latency or security requirements. Ask:
- Does this feature align with a strategic focus area?
- Are my systems tagging or tracking features tied to OKRs?
If you’re designing without understanding the goal, you’re coding blindfolded.
2. Make Technical Work Visible
Most internal work, like refactors or tech debt resolution, goes unseen and unrewarded. But these investments are essential for long-term business value. As developers, we should tie refactors or tech debt resolution efforts to focus areas using the team’s strategy lens.
Jira can be leveraged to tag efforts to narratives that frame these efforts as strategic enablers.
3. Map Talent to Strategic Work
ESP highlights how overlooked Talent is.
If you’re a developer:
- Advocate for work that stretches or highlights your skillset.
- Show how your contributions drive mission-critical priorities.
If you’re a tech lead:
- Design pods or feature teams based on strategic alignment, not just org charts.
- Match mentorship or upskilling plans with roadmap milestones.
4. Track Impact, Not Just Metrics
System developers might be tracking usage or up-time, but do these measures tie into the customer impact? It is vital to tie alerts or dashboards to meaningful milestones such as:
- Conversions
- Dips
- Latency on revenue-critical services
Doing so helps non-technical stakeholders relate the value of your system to their goals.
5. Rotate the Strategy Cube in Retros
Use retros or post-mortems to assess more than sprint velocity. Ask:
- Did our work align with a strategic goal?
- Did we have the right talent, systems, and funding?
- Were our updates accurate and timely?
These discussions build organizational muscles for systems thinking beyond coding requirements.
➕ Growth Opportunities
If you're a developer, ESP lets you:
- Frame your work in strategic terms.
- Advocate for work that maps to real outcomes.
- Set yourself up for Staff+ roles.
If you're a tech lead, ESP helps you:
- Shape team design, project intake, and architecture based on company goals.
- Coach engineers toward outcomes, not just output.
- Elevate conversations from delivery to direction.
🧭 Final Thought
System design is strategy at scale. And strategy, when done right, is everyone’s job, not just leadership’s.
By connecting the dots between goals, work, systems, and people, developers can stop being just the "executioners of requirements" and become shapers of outcomes.
🎥 Want to see some of these principles in action?
Check out the following LeadDev webinar on how Developer Experience drives business outcomes. It features real examples from fintech, gaming, and platform teams on how aligning internal tooling with business strategy transformed devs from executioners to strategic contributors.
According to the DORA team’s research, teams with high software delivery performance deploy faster, recover quicker, and are less stressed - key indicators of well-aligned systems and strategy.
📚 Further Reading: Developer Experience, Strategy & Systems
Here are some excellent sources that reinforce how developers can shape outcomes when systems, strategy, and people align:
🧠 Foundational Thinking
- DORA Metrics – Accelerate Performance
Understand how to measure and improve software delivery across Work, Talent, and Systems. - Team Topologies
Learn how well-structured teams and internal platforms boost developer flow and business alignment.
🏢 Industry Case Studies
- Spotify Squad Model (YouTube)
See how Spotify empowers autonomous teams that align to business outcomes through clear focus areas. - GitHub State of DevEx Report
Data-backed insights on how developer experience correlates with retention, satisfaction, and velocity. - Salesforce Engineering on Internal Platforms
A practical guide to treating your internal systems as products, not afterthoughts.
🎙️ More Talks and Thought Leaders
- Charity Majors – Observability for Teams
A must-watch on how developer visibility into systems directly supports business goals. - Stripe on Developer Productivity
Learn how Stripe protects developer time and designs internal tools for maximum leverage.
📈 Executive Insights
- McKinsey Developer Velocity Index
Research-backed business case for investing in developer experience to boost innovation and growth.
