I've chatted with many platform/infra teams who are struggling to get buy-in for internal tools (ex:backstage) in the current market.

The problem is that they're using the wrong sales process!

Typically, someone sets up backstage during a hackweek, wins 1-2 HC and then after a year of mixed adoption and 'good' impact, management pulls the plug.

The mistake is to treat an internal tool like a bottom-up experiment (roll it out and hope DORA metrics tick up) rather than a top-down sales process (where you are mapping the needs and criteria of your ‘buyer’ from day one).

If you look at commercial alternatives to backstage (Cortex, Port, etc), they tell a very different story (scorecards, service creation) to a different audience (Directors/VPs). Vendors know that there is no point engaging unless they've aligned on KPIs & Q/Q goals with a purchaser.

My view? To get y2 for your internal tool you need exec buy-in from d1, (and you should borrow marketing/ROI language from a commercial solution 😛 )