Effective Platform Product Management: A product manager’s guide to strategizing and executing the platform business model to expand the customer base

Design, strategize, and implement a proven roadmap for your platforms to scale your business across multiple channels that provide a seamless and intuitive user experience

Key Features

• Understand the importance of platform business models and the difference between linear products and platforms
• Explore the end-to-end platform life cycle, from developing a strategy to measuring the outcome
• Discover the benefits of the platform business model and effective strategies through examples

Book Description

In recent years, platform business models have revolutionized various industries, including retail and media. Companies such as Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify have changed how businesses reach out to their consumers. With the rise of these platforms and the increased use of technology, consumers prefer to search, explore, compare, and choose between different options within a single uninterrupted user experience. Providing such an experience is difficult and almost impossible when using linear models, and this is why modern businesses must adopt a platform-first approach to change how they invent, develop, and market solutions.

This book addresses a critical pillar of platform development – product management. It’ll help you to understand the difference between traditional and modern product management for platforms while exploring the importance and benefits of the platform business model. 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 also walks you through the steps and guidelines that’ll help organizations and product managers to 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.

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

This book is for product managers, product owners, product directors, and business executives responsible for defining platform strategy and its day-to-day execution. The book will also be useful for change managers and program managers who are responsible for the transition from products to platforms. No prior knowledge of platform strategy or platform transitioning is required as the book covers these topics to help you get started.

Table of Contents

1. Fundamentals of Platform Business Models
2. Difference between Linear Products and Platforms
3. Research and Validation
4. Building a Platform Strategy
5. Defining the MVP and Creating a Platform Roadmap
6. Launching the Platform
7. Creating a Platform Operating Model
8. Metrics to Measure the Platform Outcome
9. Ongoing Backlog Prioritization
10. Moving from Linear Products to Platforms