The ultimate Cloud Native Human
If you have been anywhere near the Platform Engineering, CI/CD, or Kubernetes space in the last few years, chances are you have crossed paths with Lian Li — or at least felt her influence.
With over 15 years of industry experience spanning Frontend, Backend, and DevOps, Lian brings a philosophy that cuts through the noise: technology needs to serve the people using it, not the other way around.
That sounds obvious. But walk through any enterprise and count how many Internal Developer Platforms sit unused, how many CI/CD pipelines nobody trusts, how many tools were chosen for technical elegance rather than developer adoption. Lian’s work is about fixing exactly that.
Platform Advocacy Framework
As the founder of lianmakesthings and a DevRel Engineer at Vorwerk Group, Lian developed the Platform Advocacy Framework — a structured approach to turning Internal Developer Platforms from “technically impressive ghost towns” into tools that teams actually use and love.
The framework addresses the gap that most platform teams ignore: adoption is not a technical problem, it is a people problem. You can build the most elegant IDP with Backstage and perfect GitOps workflows, but if developers do not understand it, trust it, or want to use it, you have built expensive shelfware.
Lian’s framework covers:
- Discovery — How do developers find out your platform exists and what it does?
- Onboarding — How fast can a new team go from zero to productive?
- Feedback loops — How do platform teams hear what is working and what is not?
- Advocacy — How do you create internal champions who spread adoption organically?
- Metrics — How do you measure adoption beyond “number of users” (which tells you nothing about satisfaction)?
This is the difference between a platform that gets mandated from the top (and resented from the bottom) and one that spreads because developers genuinely prefer it.
CNCF Leadership
Lian serves as the Co-Chair for the CNCF’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on App Delivery — one of the most influential groups shaping how the Cloud Native ecosystem thinks about application deployment, platform engineering, and developer experience.
She co-authored the CNCF Platforms White Paper, which has become the reference document for organizations building internal platforms. If your company is on a platform engineering journey, this white paper is essential reading — and Lian’s perspective on adoption and developer experience runs through it.
Her CNCF contributions extend beyond documents: she actively shapes the community conversations around what “platform” means, who it serves, and how success should be measured.
Where tech meets theater
Here is what makes Lian truly unique in the Cloud Native world: she is also a passionate performance artist. Recently starring as Sir Lancelot in Spamalot, she brings something to tech that most engineers do not — the empathy, stage presence, and genuine human connection that comes from performing.
This is not a random hobby. It directly informs her work:
- She runs public speaking workshops for developers, helping engineers communicate their ideas with confidence and clarity
- Her talks feel like performances — engaging, human, memorable
- She brings theatrical techniques to developer advocacy, making complex platform concepts accessible
In an industry that often prioritizes technical depth over communication skills, Lian proves that the best engineers are also the best communicators.
Catch Lian at KubeCon EU 2026
If you are in Amsterdam this week, Lian is going to be everywhere:
- Platform Engineering Day — her talk on Platform Adoption is a must-see for anyone building IDPs or struggling with developer buy-in
- Kuberoke (Tuesday, March 24th) — the legendary KubeCon after-after party that combines music, drama, and tech community in a way only Lian could orchestrate
Why this matters
The Cloud Native ecosystem does not lack tools. It lacks people who bridge the gap between what technology can do and what humans actually need.
Lian Li represents a shift in how we think about platform engineering: not as infrastructure for infrastructure’s sake, but as a product that serves developers. Her Platform Advocacy Framework, CNCF leadership, and unique blend of theater and tech make her one of the most important voices in the ecosystem.
Follow her work at lianmakesthings.dev and connect on LinkedIn.
This is part of my KubeCon Europe 2026 Leaders series, profiling the people shaping the Cloud Native ecosystem. I will be at KubeCon EU 2026 as well, speaking about Multi-tenant GPUs on Bare Metal OpenShift AI. Come say hello — and check out the full list of side events.
