Navigating Internal Platform Adoption: Lessons from the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Game Theory

It has been a month since I shared my last article. To convince me of the reasons, here is what happened: I attended kubecon2023 Chicago, fell sick for a few weeks, and returned to work. But it was a perfect start, as I got to meet with my mentor and had a lot of conversations on various topics in leadership, focusing on organizational strategies.

This article resulted from the thought-provoking conversations I had with my mentor, and I look forward to going deeper into this context in the coming months.

This article covers what is all about Game theory and how the Prisoner’s Dilemma can apply to Technical Engineering Organizations, especially internal platform engineering teams and the developer teams that adopt those platforms.

Image by Vijay Chintha

What is Game Theory :

Game theory is a field of mathematics and economics that studies strategic interactions among rational decision-makers. It’s used to analyze situations where the outcome of a decision is not only determined by the decision-maker’s actions but also by the actions of others.

Here are some key aspects of game theory:

1. Strategic Decision Making: Game theory provides a framework for understanding how individuals or groups make decisions in situations where their actions affect each other. This is particularly important in economics, political science, and psychology.
2. Types of Games: There are various types of games analyzed in game theory, including cooperative vs. non-cooperative games, symmetric vs. asymmetric games, zero-sum vs. non-zero-sum games, and simultaneous vs. sequential games.

• Cooperative games are those in which players can form coalitions and make binding commitments.
• Non-cooperative games involve players making decisions independently.
• Zero-sum games are scenarios where one player’s gain is exactly balanced by the losses of other players.
• Non-zero-sum games allow for the possibility that all players can benefit.
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a fundamental model in game theory illustrating why two rational individuals might not cooperate.

In essence, game theory provides a structured way to think about strategic interactions, where an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. It’s a powerful tool for predicting outcomes in complex systems where multiple agents interact.

Prisoner’s Dilemma:

Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of speaking to or exchanging messages with the other. The police admit they don’t have enough evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge. They plan to sentence both to a year in prison on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the police offer each prisoner a Faustian bargain. If he testifies against his partner, he will go free while the partner will get three years in prison on the main charge. Oh, yes, there is a catch … If both prisoners testify against each other, both will be sentenced to two years in jail. The prisoners are given a little time to think this over, but in no case may either learn what the other has decided until he has irrevocably made his decision. Each is informed that the other prisoner is being offered the very same deal. Each prisoner is concerned only with his own welfare — with minimizing his own prison sentence.

This leads to four different possible outcomes for prisoners A and B:

If A and B both remain silent, they will each serve one year in prison.
If A testifies against B but B remains silent, A will be set free while B serves three years in prison.
If A remains silent but B testifies against A, A will serve three years in prison and B will be set free.
If A and B testify against each other, they will each serve two years.

Image by Vijay Chintha using MidJourney

Applying Prisoner’s Dilemma to Technical Engineering Organizations

Verticals Description

1. Platform Provider Vertical (PPV): This division develops and maintains internal reusable platforms.
2. Platform User Vertical (PUV): This division utilizes the platforms provided by PPV for their projects.

Potential Outcomes

1. Mutual Cooperation: Both PPV and PUV work collaboratively. PPV develops robust, user-friendly platforms, and PUV provides constructive feedback and adheres to best practices. This leads to efficient resource utilization, innovation, and overall organizational growth.
2. Mutual Defection: PPV minimizes effort in platform development, resulting in suboptimal products. PUV, in response, might develop ad-hoc solutions or seek external resources, leading to duplicated efforts and increased costs. This situation can create a toxic work environment and hinder overall organizational efficiency.
3. One-Sided Defection (PPV Defects): PPV provides low-quality platforms or doesn’t tailor them to the needs of PUV. As a result, PUV might underutilize these platforms, leading to inefficiencies and potential project delays.
4. One-Sided Defection (PUV Defects): PUV doesn’t properly utilize or provide feedback for the platforms, opting for external solutions or creating makeshift in-house tools. This demotivates PPV and leads to a decline in the quality of platforms.

Impact on the Organization

• Innovation and Growth: Mutual cooperation fosters an environment of innovation and collective problem-solving, driving the organization towards growth.
• Cost and Resource Efficiency: Collaboration ensures optimal use of resources, reducing unnecessary expenditures and effort duplication.
• Organizational Culture: The nature of interaction between these two verticals significantly influences the organizational culture. Cooperation promotes a positive, productive environment, while defection can lead to mistrust and inefficiency.
• Quality of Output: The quality of the platforms and the resulting projects directly correlates with the level of cooperation between PPV and PUV.

Conclusion

In the context of a technical engineering organizations, applying the Prisoner’s Dilemma model to internal verticals highlights the importance of cooperation for organizational success. Mutual cooperation leads to synergistic benefits, while defection, whether mutual or one-sided, can have detrimental effects on both the performance and culture of the organization. This model underscores the need for aligned goals, open communication, and a collaborative culture to maximize efficiency and innovation.

Credit to Wikipedia for maintaining detailed notes on game theory and related content.