Effective Platform Product Management

Effective Platform Product Management

by Tabassum Memon
Released November 2021
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801811354

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Book description

Turn your platform into the next big thing with expert advice to scale and implement a proven growth roadmap across multiple channels

Key Features

  • Gain expert insight about platform business models and how they're different to linear products
  • Explore the end-to-end platform life cycle, from developing a strategy to measuring the outcome
  • Follow real-life examples to discover the most effective growth strategies your platform

Book Description

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.

What you will learn

  • Understand the difference between the product and platform business model
  • Build an end-to-end platform strategy from scratch
  • Translate the platform strategy to a roadmap with a well-defined implementation plan
  • Define the MVP for faster releases and test viability in the early stages
  • Create an operating model and design an execution plan
  • Measure the success or failure of the platform and make iterations after feedback

Who this book is for

If you're a product manager, product owner, product director, or a business executive working on a platform strategy and its day-to-day execution, then this book is for you. It will also be useful for change managers and program managers tasked with transitioning from products to platforms. You won't need any prior knowledge of platform strategy or platform transitioning before you get started, since the book covers all the basics – but taking notes to reflect on your journey as you work through the practical examples in this book is recommended.

Table of contents

  1. Effective Platform Product Management
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. About the reviewer
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the color images
    5. Conventions used
    6. Get in touch
    7. Share your thoughts
  7. Section 1: Building the Right Strategy for the Platform Business Model
  8. Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Platform Business Models
    1. What is a platform?
    2. Understanding platform business models
      1. Characteristics of a platform business model
      2. Types of platforms
      3. Platform revenue models
      4. Benefits of a platform business model
    3. Building the right digital platform for a platform business model
      1. Factors to consider while building a digital platform
      2. Components of a digital platform
    4. Summary
  9. Chapter 2: Differences between Linear Products and Platforms
    1. Linear product versus digital platform
      1. Entity versus mediator
      2. No ownership of products or content
      3. Users on both sides
      4. Accumulation of producers
    2. Traditional product management and platform product management
      1. Pre-introduction
      2. Introduction
      3. Growth
      4. Maturity
    3. Case study
      1. Standalone linear product
      2. Digital platform
      3. Conclusion
    4. Summary
  10. Chapter 3: Research and Validation
    1. Defining the problem
      1. Identifying pairs of producers and consumers
      2. Creating an empathy map
      3. Drafting problem statements
      4. Combining producer and consumer problems
    2. Identifying the solution
    3. Validating the concept
      1. Concept validation steps
    4. Case study
      1. Making an empathy map for our case study
      2. Designing problems
      3. Creating a holistic problem statement
      4. Identifying a solution
      5. Validation
    5. Summary
  11. Chapter 4: Building a Platform Strategy
    1. What is platform strategy?
    2. Defining the business vision
      1. Steps for defining the business vision
    3. Defining the business strategy
    4. Defining the platform strategy
      1. Types of platform strategy
    5. Components of a platform strategy
    6. Case study
      1. Business vision
      2. Business strategy
      3. Platform strategy
    7. Summary
  12. Section 2: Building the Platform
  13. Chapter 5: Defining the MVP and Creating a Platform Roadmap
    1. Understanding the roadmap
      1. The elements of a roadmap
      2. Linear product roadmap versus platform roadmap
    2. Defining platform capabilities
      1. Mapping an end-to-end user journey
      2. Extracting capabilities from the user journey
    3. Defining the platform MVP
      1. Prioritizing capabilities
      2. Ranking touchpoints and experiences
      3. Mapping the end-to-end MVP
    4. Creating the platform roadmap
      1. Defining milestones
      2. Organizing capabilities against milestones
    5. Case study
      1. Escola user journey map
      2. Escola capabilities
      3. Capabilities and experience prioritization
      4. Mapping the end-to-end Escola MVP
      5. Creating a roadmap for Escola
    6. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: Launching the Platform
    1. Executing the launch strategy
      1. Elements of the launch
    2. Exploring the marketing plan
      1. Pre-launch activities
      2. Launch activities
      3. Post-launch activities
      4. Creating a marketing plan visualization
    3. Factors impacting launch timing
    4. Case study
      1. Escola launch plan
    5. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: Creating a Platform Operating Model
    1. What is an operating model?
      1. The components of an operating model
    2. The differences between platform and linear product operating models
    3. Platform team structure
      1. Digital teams
      2. Business and other operations teams
    4. Platform governance model
    5. Platform Ways of Working
      1. Culture
      2. Skills and knowledge development
      3. Roles and responsibilities
    6. Case study
      1. Escola team structure and governance model
    7. Summary
  16. Section 3: Measuring the Performance of the Platform
  17. Chapter 8: Metrics to Measure the Platform Outcome
    1. Measuring platform outcome
    2. Defining goals
    3. Identifying metrics
    4. Defining targets
    5. Analyzing results
    6. Case study
      1. Defining goals for Escola
      2. Identifying metrics to measure goals for Escola
      3. Defining targets for the metrics
    7. Summary
  18. Chapter 9: Ongoing Backlog Prioritization
    1. What is platform backlog prioritization?
      1. Difference between linear product and platform prioritization
      2. Factors to know before platform backlog prioritization
    2. Metrics-driven prioritization
      1. Accumulation
      2. Connection
      3. Interaction
    3. Prioritization framework
    4. Challenges of platform backlog prioritization
    5. Mistakes to avoid during platform backlog prioritization
    6. Case study
    7. Summary
  19. Chapter 10: Moving from Linear Products to Platforms
    1. The need for transformation
    2. Validating the viability of the platform model
    3. Prerequisites to start the transition
    4. Starting the transition
    5. Running a hybrid model
    6. The platform transition at different layers
    7. Case study
    8. Summary
    9. Why subscribe?
  20. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Share your thoughts

Product information

  • Title: Effective Platform Product Management
  • Author(s): Tabassum Memon
  • Release date: November 2021
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801811354