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

What is platform backlog prioritization?

Even before a product is launched, it has a significant backlog of features. There is a list of features and functionalities that we want to add to the product. This list is usually created from user research, competitive analysis, product managers' experience, and so on. A minimum set of features is selected from this list to launch a viable product, which becomes our Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The rest of the features are added to the backlog. Over time, there is the continuous addition of features to the backlog from user feedback, product analytics, market research, business needs, and so on. The challenge that every product manager faces is prioritizing that backlog and developing features that bring maximum benefit.

There are several frameworks and techniques available that product managers use to prioritize their backlog based on their business and organizational needs. There are also some guiding principles that product...