Book Image

Effective Platform Product Management

By : Tabassum Memon
Book Image

Effective Platform Product Management

By: Tabassum Memon

Overview of this book

Scaling a platform is a lot different than scaling a product. This is why product managers developing or transitioning to a platform model are often facing completely new challenges – both technical and strategic. But if you want to build the next Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, or a completely new type of platform, then you need to adopt a platform-first approach to change how you invent, develop, and market solutions. This is where Effective Product Platform Management comes in. This book addresses product management as a critical pillar of platform development. It'll help you understand the difference between traditional and modern product management for platforms and even decide whether the platform business model is the way to go for you. As you progress, you’ll be able to build the right platform strategy, define the MVP, and focus on ongoing backlog prioritization for successful platforms. This book will also walk you through the practical steps and guidelines that can ease your organization’s transition from linear products to platforms. By the end of this platform product management book, you’ll have learned the essential aspects of product management for building successful and scalable platforms. You’ll also have a clear understanding of the next steps you need to take to perfect and execute your new platform strategy – and take on the world.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
1
Section 1: Building the Right Strategy for the Platform Business Model
6
Section 2: Building the Platform
10
Section 3: Measuring the Performance of the Platform

Linear product versus digital platform

In the previous chapter, while discussing the characteristics of platform business models, we looked at how the foundation of a digital platform is multidimensional, whereas traditional products are linear. If we expand this concept further, we will see that four major distinguishing factors set digital platforms apart, as outlined here:

  • Entity versus mediator
  • No ownership of products or content
  • Users on both sides
  • Accumulation of producers

Entity versus mediator

In terms of linear products, producers directly communicate or connect with consumers, but digital platforms are mediators. They act as a middleman and bind all parties involved in delivering value, such as producers, consumers, and intermediaries such as banks and dashers, who all communicate through the platform to complete a transaction. For example, if a user is ordering food from a restaurant's website, the restaurant is the producer who is also...