This week’s Sunday Rewind is a 2019 #mtpcon San Francisco talk from Brandon Chu, then VP of Product at Shopify, on what platforms can mean for our product strategies, and what his team learned as they discovered how to build a platform at Shopify.
Brandon starts by defining a platform. He says a product is building something to ship to customers, a platform is building a place where other builders or creators can build things to ship to customers.
Brandon says there are three types of platform:
- Developer platforms – operating systems and tools that enable developers to build products faster.
- Marketplace and consumer platforms – platforms are focused on enabling connections between creators and consumers.
- Product extension platforms – their purpose is to enable third-party app developers to improve your product so it is more appealing to customers. Brandon says you can fill the gap between your customer problems and the capacity you have with a product extension platform. Third-party developers are able to meet niche needs your team doesn’t have time for, and can often do it better.
This is some of what Brandon’s team at Shopify learned about product extension platforms.
Accelerating the flywheel is your job
At Shopify, they structured teams around the flywheel, building teams focused on the tools developers need to build, teams focused on helping users discover and access apps, and teams focused on helping developers be successful with areas like payout and user data.
Earn trust with developers
While tight restrictions and policies may help earn trust with consumers, it can have the opposite effect on developers. Keeping tight control on your platform can make you difficult to work with, and push developers away, regardless of your user base. To earn trust with developers
- Your purpose, policy, and business model must be aligned.
- Invest in community.
- Treat developers as business partners, not users.
Be patient
Platforms take a long time to come to fruition – Shopify took over five years to see its platform strategy show some real success. Your company must be willing to invest the time and energy to see it through long-term.
Watch the original talk: Platform management by Brandon Chu
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