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

Platform team structure

Team structure plays a vital role in the success and failure of any organization. It is essential to structure the organization so that it doesn't create bottlenecks and enables smooth functioning at all levels. This principle of having a less dependent organization is true for platform businesses as well.

Platform teams must be structured so that each team can independently operate but deliver value that is aligned to the overall platform and is beneficial for all the parties involved. I like to divide platform teams into two broad categories:

  • The first one is digital teams that comprise lean cross-functional teams that own a digital product or service.
  • The second category is business or operation teams, such as marketing, finance, sales, and so on. These teams complement the digital teams by providing them with operational support.

Let's look at these two categories of teams in detail.

Digital teams

Platform digital teams...