As Product Manager for IT Enablement at Essent, Roos Anneveldt leads a transformative effort to align IT platforms with the company’s broader goal of becoming a technology-driven business. This journey involves moving away from traditional IT silos and adopting an agile, collaborative structure focused on value creation. By integrating practices from frameworks such as Team Topologies, Essent has redefined platform and enablement teams, combining their roles to unlock greater value. Anneveldt highlights how the cloud platform team at Essent delivers scalable, automated solutions while also offering direct consultations to support stream-aligned teams. The integration of GitOps enables engineers to contribute directly, ensuring platforms remain adaptable and aligned with evolving needs. This approach fosters a collaborative culture where platforms serve as dynamic environments for innovation, not just tools. Central to this transformation is Essent’s “three amigos” leadership model, consisting of a Product Manager, System Engineer, and Agile Release Train Engineer, which promotes shared responsibility and democratic decision-making. Viewing software engineers as customers has been critical in creating platforms that encourage voluntary adoption rather than enforcement. Through this shift, Essent’s IT Enablement has become a critical enabler of innovation and business success, positioning the company to thrive as it evolves into a tech company.