SimonWardleyOnPlatforms

SimonWardley says

X: Any thoughts on building a platform?

Me: The reason why you build a platform is to enable an ecosystem. A platform is simply those components (ideally expressed through APIs) that your ecosystem exploits.

X: Ok, the platform enables an ecosystem but why build an ecosystem?

Me: The reason why you build an ecosystem is for componentisation effects and to exploit others through data mining on consumption. Your ecosystem is your future sensing engine, assuming you use it correctly.

X: Any hints?

Me: Hmmm ...

• 1) If you don't focus on user needs and reducing friction (i.e. making it easy to use) then you lose. No-one will turn up or those that do will quickly leave for something else or build their own out of desperation.
• 2) If you limit your platform to internal then your ecosystem will be smaller than a company which exposes their platform to the public. Their rate of apparent innovation, customer focus and efficiency will massively outstrip yours as their ecosystem becomes larger. You lose.( 3) If you fail to data mine consumption then you won't be able to leverage the ecosystem to spot new patterns that are useful to the ecosystem. Your ecosystem and platform will stagnate compared to a competitor that does this. You lose.
• 4) If you do mine your ecosystem and aggressively harvest without giving the ecosystem reasons to stay ... everyone will run away. You lose.
• 5) A platform based upon product concepts has a high cost of data mining and low speed compared to a platform providing utility components through an API. If you're trying to build a platform of products against a platform of utility components then - you lose.
• 6) If you build a platform with components that are not industrialised (i.e. commodity like) then the interfaces will continuously change and your ecosystem will not be able to rely on you. If you're up against someone who industrialises those components then ... you lose.
• 7) If you have little to no ecosystem and decide to take on a large public platform that focuses on user needs, mines effectively and provides industrialised components through APIs as a utility then ... you lose unless you co-opt.
• 8) If you provide custom or product like components on a platform and fail to implement a mechanism of evolving those components to industrialised services then you build up technical debt. Over time, this becomes spaghetti junction. Your platform creaks and ... you lose.
• 9) If I say phrases like ILC, two factor market, supplier ecosystem and you go 'eh?' ... you lose.
• 10) If you think platforms are all about marketing ... you lose.
• 11) If you think platforms are all about engineering ... you lose.
• 12) If you think platforms are easy (ps. I built my first platform as a service in 2005) then ... you'll lose.
• 13) If you think the secret is to build an API specification, call it a standard, even an open standard and vendors will all come and build against it creating your ecosystem in the sheer delight of your wonderful gesture ... you lose.

Here endeth the lesson 2015 - https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/08/on-platforms-and-ecosystems.html

... if you think that our understanding of platforms hasn't evolved since and the list I've given isn't so basic that it's barely worth repeating ... you lose.