Why Platform Business Model is Important Now More than Ever

Platform in general means “something that helps something else to happen”. And Digital Platform is no different. It is something that enables businesses to connect through technology and deliver value, for example, an e-commerce platform where producers and consumers interact with each other to create and deliver value. Sangeet Paul, author of the book Platform Revolution has defined a platform as “.... a plug and play business model that allows multiple participants (producers and consumers) to connect to it, interact with each other and create and exchange value”. 

If we go a little deeper into this definition we will understand that Platform allows a web of multiple channels to connect and perform core activities as opposed to just two entities connecting linearly in a traditional business model.

In the linear business model, there is usually one producer selling to consumers whereas a Platform allows multiple producers to utilize the platform capabilities and reach out to their consumers. For example, any seller can sell on Amazon, Spotify users have access to music from multiple artists and bands. These platforms are not restricted to one seller or one artist. This network of producers and consumers is what makes the Platform business model so different and disruptive. 

Let’s look at how this multi-dimensional Platform Business Model can help in the current environment where social distancing, remote learning, and telecommuting are the new normal. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, most of the countries are in major lockdowns, services like groceries and food delivery has seen a tremendous increase in demand. Early data in the UK has shown around 11% increase in the revenue of online food delivery compared to the same period last year. There was a record increase in the number of downloads of grocery delivery apps like Instacart, Walmart, and Target in the month of March. Almost every school and university is moving to distance or remote learning to keep their students and staff safe and avoid the spread of the virus. Given this surge in the usage of online services, customers would want more and more options available online. Customers would like to search, explore compare, and choose between different options within a single and uninterrupted user experience. Providing such an experience would be difficult and almost impossible by Linear Models and hence, the Platform Model will and should become the new normal. 

In my opinion, retail and education are the two industries in the B2C market that will be impacted the most and need to pivot to the Platform first approach in the coming days. Let’s look at them in detail:

1. Retail: 

We have already witnessed huge disruption in the retail industry in the last decade or so where larger brick and mortar retailers are struggling to survive. And now with the global pandemic impacting the day to day life and social distancing becoming the new norm, it will be even harder to get customers to malls or physical stores. Even after the lockdowns are over it will take some time to build customer confidence in revisiting the malls. When customers cannot visit malls, businesses should offer them a similar experience digitally, multiple sellers selling under one umbrella, exactly what Amazon has done. Amazon digitized the concept of the traditional marketplace which put them in a huge competitive advantage. The same concept now should be extended to other types of retail, like fashion, real estate, etc. Imagine a platform where designers can create their own boutiques and provide personalized services to their customers and customers can chat with stylists, try outfits from various designers in virtual trial rooms and accessorize their looks. Now, instead of each designer building, these capabilities which can be expensive and inefficient a platform can expose these capabilities, and designers can create their own digital experiences using those capabilities which will be faster and risk-free. 

2. Education: 

Education is one industry where digital innovation is long overdue. There are very few schools that are equipped with digitized content let alone running an entire virtual classroom. After the outbreak of the pandemic and lockdowns, many schools moved to virtual classrooms using Zoom or Webex but those are just stopgaps. Teachers are spending days before the sessions to create the digitized content and prep to fit the lessons in a virtual setting. We are in desperate need of a Platform that can allow institutes to set up their virtual classrooms for each grade, upload curriculum, create digitized lessons for each class, and conduct online exams. Such a Platform will not just be useful for schools but also for students and parents where students can form study groups, parents can chat with other parents, etc.

Virtual classrooms are not a replacement for the actual classrooms but if we have such a platform available then any school can create a digital experience using the platform capabilities as and when required. And capabilities like school administration will always be useful for process efficiency without any impact on the quality of education.

The above two industries are on top of my list which will need to adapt to the new normal quickly and Platform thinking can help them achieve it. But there are definitely other industries and sectors in B2C and B2B markets that will be impacted and need to pivot to a similar Platform first approach to embrace the new normal and stay ahead in the curve. 

Product Manager in an agile world

In traditional world, for an idea to translate to a product, it had to go through different phases like conceptualization, solutioning and then development. Market research team would do the research, come up with a concept and hand it over to the product manager. Product manager would then come up with a solution and pass the requirements to project manager. Project manager would then get the development started from the team. In this scenario the vision of the product or the business objective gets diluted like a Chinese Whisper game. There is no single owner in this case. Market research team is responsible for the concept, product management is responsible for the solution and development team owns the development. But no one is responsible for creating a sustainable quality product as a whole. 

How can this problem be solved? There must be one person who owns the product, who is responsible for the product from concept to launch. Now, who that person should be? Who other than Product Manager can take that responsibility? As he is the one who is close to the market and closer to the development team. For successful delivery of any product, Product Manager must closely work with the development team. In agile world, Product Manager is part of the development team and works closely with the scrum master.

What an agile product manager must do: -

1. Be part of the development team: - Product Manger must not work in isolation. He or she should be part of the development team like developers, QAs, etc. Product Manager must work very closely with the scrum master through the iteration or sprint. Product Manger knows the business priority and Scrum Master knows how the team is progressing, they both can help each other in critical decisions. Scrum Master and Product Manger roles complement each other throughout the product life cycle.

2. Participate in sprint meetings: - Product Manager must participate in all the meetings, like iteration planning, daily scrums or stand ups, retrospectives, etc. as he or she is part of the scrum team. In fact he or she should drive some of the meetings like iteration planning. Product Manger's inputs in these meetings are very important. For instance if there is a change in priority from business, product manger is the one who would know it first and this input in daily stand up or iteration planning meeting will help the team to start accommodating such change early on, instead of last minute surprise.

3. Work with market research and other stakeholders: - Being part of the development team doesn't mean that Product Manager should not participate in market research, concept triages and brainstorming sessions. As he or she is closely working with the development team, his inputs about the feasibility and the limitations of accommodating and implementing new ideas are very vital. Knowing these details early in the cycle helps in faster decision making process. 

4. Think like an end user: - Product Manager must always think that the product is developed for himself. What features and functionalities he would want if he has to use the product. Product is of no use if it cannot satisfy end users' needs. Hence, while building a product, Product Manager should always put himself in end users' shoes and take decisions.

What an agile product manager must not do: -

1. Work as a separate entity: - Some Product Mangers work remotely, away from the development team. This creates a huge gap between the team and the Product Manger. Product vision is not translated to the team. The communication cycle for the smallest information becomes very lengthy. When Product Manager works in isolation, he is not aware of how product is evolving and team is unaware of the long term objective of the product. Hence, adaptability and agility of the product becomes very low.

2. Responsibility without authority: - Product Manger should have complete authority on the decisions regarding the product. A pseudo owner without any authority may lead to team burn-outs.  Since Product Manager is responsible for delivering a successful product, he should be authorized to take important decisions about the product. Involvement of other stake holders is important in decision making process but Product Manager should be the one who makes the final decision. 

3. Unsustainable pace: - Don't bite off more than you can chew. Many Product Managers make a mistake of signing up a lot for the sprint and rushing the team through it. It might be possible to achieve this in one sprint but it won't be sustainable. Team would get worn out and slow down which would impact the velocity in long run. Product Manager must ensure that team has enough work that can be delivered without being over worked.

4. Release everything at once: - It is always advisable to test the water by dipping your toes rather than jumping in the pool. Hence, never target to make a big bang release with loads of features and functionality. Start small, release few features, gather user feedback and work upon them. Always test the market by releasing an MVP with few but important features, collect user reactions on the existing and missing features and build the road map based on that. Product evolving from user feedback is much more sustainable than a product released with lots features and functionalities without taking any user input.

Product Vision: - 

Product Manager should envision the product right from start. He should be very clear on what the product is supposed to do and what it is not supposed to do. End goal of the product must be well defined and communicated to everyone. For example, for a loyalty platform the goal of the product should be to simplify points collection and redemption mechanism. Product Manager must have this vision in mind and must bring everyone onboard with this. Sharing the vision with everyone involved is very important, business stakeholders must know what are they marketing about and development team must be aware on what should be the final outcome.  

Product vision must be brief and broad. Product Vision must not include granularity and details. There must be enough room for creativity. Hence, it is important that Product Manager shares a broad and unified vision of the product with everyone involved.

Backlog Grooming: -

Once the MVP is identified, features or requirements outside the MVP goes into Product Backlog. Product Manager is the owner of that backlog and it is his responsibility to keep grooming that backlog along with the development team and other stakeholders. New items must be added to the backlog and existing items must be modified or removed depending on the product evolvement. Product Backlog must be dynamic and must adapt to user feedback, market reaction, technical changes, etc. It is also important to prioritize the backlog regularly. A high priority item in the backlog may become low priority few months after the release and a non existing item may get highest priority. Hence, it is important to make appropriate changes to the product backlog from time to time. Some teams like prioritizing the backlog for every iteration, some do it every release.

In conclusion, product manager in an agile world is like a glue that sticks together everyone involved in the product development. He has a clear vision of the product that he communicates to everyone. But he also accommodates needs of the business and development team. He works closely with business stakeholders, yet he is part of the development team