Thread by @padiyar_

The second talk that I'm documenting from #mtpcon SF is by @BrandonMChu of @Shopify. The topic was PLATFORM MANAGEMENT. This one was super interesting because I had never thought of platform this way

What is a platform?
It is something that other builders use to ship products. We as platform managers can't see what the end users will see. The platform has little to no relationship with the end user. Most platforms exist only to serve developers

There are roughly 3 types of platforms
1. Developer platforms - stripe, AWS ...
2. Marketplace platforms - Airbnb, Uber, YouTube
3. Product Extension platforms - Shopify, Salesforce, iPhone

Talking about product extension platforms. Who needs them and why?
Any product company can develop a platform to scale well. No company that is large enough can solve all it's issues. The product backlog grows infinitely. Even with infinite resources.

The only way to fill this gap is to let 3rd party developers add to your product - in other words - become a platform.

There are roughly 3 main things to remember

1. The goal is to accelerate the flywheel. To do this, internal team structures need to change when a product transitions to become a platform. They need to become structured around specific areas of customer/end-user success.

Trust is the flywheel's grease. The interactions that end users have with the platform are important. For eg. App Store is more trusted than the Chrome Web Store by users. This is because stuff like app install permissions & automatic data deletion on app uninstall develop trust

Platform PMs need specific skills. These are software engineering, economics (specifically microeconomics to understand supply and demand) and operations to properly maintain quality along product lifecycle

2. Earning trust with developers is hard. Google does this better than apple. The purpose, policy and business model of your platform must be aligned so as to make developer business partners. If your API breaks, you should be able to just call up your developers and tell them

Investing in the developer community is important. In the beginning, you need to make developers take a bet on you and once you have traction, the community should grow organically as your customers start to evangelize the platform.

3. Be patient. Platforms take time to grow. Platform changes take around 2-5x more time than feature changes. This is because changes need to be made carefully and allow 3rd party developers to refactor their product and adapt to changes

Platforms need to be open and allow creativity. This openness must be maintained once they become big. Huge platforms often become closed to protect against brand risk. They become closed also because they can just choose to do so at that size without losing customers.

As a platform manager, you need to fight against this change internally and be a champion for your customers/developers.

Fin.

.@MotwaniSuhas @mtpcon

This is the other thread

https://twitter.com/padiyar_/status/1151897118858256384?s=19