Managing Platform as a Product
Mohit Chandna
Product Consultant at Equal Experts| Ex-Thoughtworks| ProductTank Delhi NCR Organizer
Introduction
With increased proliferation of platform based business models, it is really important to understand how platforms can be managed effectively as a Product.
Managing a platform is different from managing an application and the methods, techniques and skills of product management in these two environments are distinct
Successful platforms have product managers who constantly strive to shift the organization’s DNA from product to “Platform First”
As part of this blog, I will elaborate on key dimensions that distinguish the operation of a Platform product manager from a traditional product manager in making a shift into the “Platform First” approach.
Each one of the above is detailed as follows:
1. Focus and enable varied personas in the ecosystem, especially on the intermediary layer
In general, the platform’s end user persona is not well defined and it’s unlike an application setup wherein the product is designed for a specific end user persona.
Platform is expected to cater a landscape that consists of varied personas ranging from end-users to developers, producers and partners and generally, the platform’s end-user persona.
Platform product managers have a myopic view of Platform End Users. With this limited visibility on end consumers ,the focus has to be on the Intermediary Layer - the developers, producers and partner personas in the platform ecosystem—so that they can, in turn, deliver optimal value and rich experiences to their end-users.
Platform is not always about End consumers, there has to be a focus on the intermediary layer.
What problems are to be solved for developers and partners
2. Safeguard the elemental aspects and authorise the rest
Building a platform is an overwhelming exercise wherein product managers feel completely lost and face challenges to identify the early wins that could deliver value. It becomes immensely important to have an understanding of core capabilities that can deliver value regularly . These core capabilities are the elemental aspects and need to be safeguarded.
As an example, Dropbox’s core interaction and differentiation is high performance ubiquitous collaboration. Dropbox continues to grow its users and customers while empowering its ecosystem through a suite of APIs and integrations with popular tools like Microsoft Outlook, Autodesk, Google, Salesforce, and Atlassian’s JIRA Software.2
Recommended by LinkedIn
Failure to identify elemental aspects has catastrophic consequences and for the same- lot of thinking needs to go in from product managers to nail down core and non-core aspects.
Exposing the Core Creates Competition, Doing It Right Creates Complementary Experiences
3. Trade-off Strategy between making information public or restricting internally through APIs
The middle tier of the ecosystem generally consists of developers and these developers are enabled to create complementary experiences through APIs. APIs, in general, are how a business expresses itself via software, and they enable that business to rapidly expand into new contexts or adapt to meet changing user needs and preferences.
The key dilemma in a Platform Product Manager’s mind is to decide between making APIs public or private.
The following decision framework can be used to consider what data should remain private, what can be exposed to partners and what data can be exposed to public developers.
4. Influence and Impact Systems Architecture
Platforms are predominantly built using microservices architecture so that business capabilities can be exposed through APIs and apps can be built on top of the platform. This distributed microservices architecture can quickly become tangled and impede scaling if the platform product manager does not get involved.
The platform product manager needs to have enough technical skills to ensure the architecture is truly turning out to be a scalable design.
Golden Rules that might help to contribute effectively :
- Be Inquisitive: Read and make explicit attempts in clearing out gray areas. Ask the Engineer- Why have they gone with a certain architecture? What is it good at, What is it not good at?
- Ask about System Limitations: This can help to identify areas which are mismatched to the needs(if any)
5. Balance between quick wins and long-term platform investments
Prioritization of features for a platform requires long-term planning to ensure sustainability, performance and scalability over time unlike traditional application product management wherein the features prioritized for development are determined using a matrix of business value versus effort.
The platform product manager needs to understand the long-term strategic vision well enough to decide on short- and long-term trade-offs.
There is always a need to appropriately balance quick wins versus long-term platform investments. Many times, unpopular decisions that hurt the short-term wins are made to make the platform better over time.
6. Defined Platform Upgrade Approach and Support Model along-with backward compatibility
Platform product manager has to be actively involved in the upgrade strategy since there will be developers and partners that base their businesses on the different versions of the platform.
There is a need to think through the support model as plenty of applications would still be running on previous versions and the consumer contract needs to be intact.
For example, Salesforce ensures future- proofing by making sure that no application written on the Salesforce platform is rendered obsolete by an upgrade.
You can’t simply upgrade a Platform without thinking about Backward Compatibility and consumption patterns
7. Choosing Effective Monetization Model
Monetization flow is complex in Platform and spread across the ecosystem of developers, partners and end-users. The most common approaches that can be explored for monetization are :
- Direct : Partners or developers can be paid to use the platform to amplify the network effect – growing the developer ecosystem to grow the platform. For instance, Slack has set up an $80 million fund to seed development of the Slack platform
- Indirect : Develop features and support Intermediary Layer experiences that in turn enable End user experiences. This way,monetization is through application but facilitated by Platform.
- Growing User Adoption of Core Product- This involves traversing through API as well as data aspects.
Platform product managers and their organisations must give careful consideration to adopting the right monetization model to achieve the best return on investment.
8. Cultural Transition to “ Platform First” Thinking
While undergoing a transformation to a platform, every single decision needs to include a mindset of building for flexibility.
Platform product manager need to work with internal developers as well as external developers in the platform ecosystem.This would involve close collaboration, justifying objectives through a strong business case and leading through influence.
Typical aspects that need to be looked through are depicted below:
Wrap up
By considering the above principles, organisations can ensure they have the best platform product management capabilities in place to guide their future, monetize their investment and capitalize on the multiplier effect of having many thriving businesses whose growth sits on top of their platform.
References