Product Management: Platform vs. Service
Within the product management world, you hear a lot of discussion about “platform.” In other words, everyone has a slightly different take on what it means. Furthermore, people argue over products that are platforms vs. services.
In the simplest terms, platforms are stable structures that lift things up. For example, Amazon AWS is a massive platform that provides a framework for many different executions. On the other hand, Netflix and Spotify are services that provide users with a very specific experience. With this, I’m sure that Netflix and Spotify have people on their teams who are focused on their “platform.” As a result, they don’t view themselves solely as services.
To differentiate platforms from services, I think that platforms enable solutions at a massive scale. The scalability of a given platform is key, as the product needs to stand up to the demands of its users. In addition, platforms provide users with mission-critical capabilities. Said differently, the foundation of the interface needs to enable an end-user experience that can be self-managed by its users.
Most importantly, platforms build ecosystems and drive economic value upstream. Without a platform to hold everything together, your internal and external partners would exist in silos. Furthermore, good platforms enable services to build on top of them. While services on their own drive revenue, platforms enable these services to be successful.
In summary, product management teams who build quality platforms are enabling the rapid growth of new product solutions. Ultimately, internal definitions of whether your product is a service or platform are less important than understanding how the two complement one another.
About the speaker
Ash is a Group Product Manager in Snap’s Monetization team where he leads Ads API, Ad Review & Integrity, and the Business Identity teams. Prior to Snap, Ash was at Microsoft and Facebook where he worked on Azure, Windows Phone App Store, Facebook Timeline, Open Graph and Ads Measurement. Ash holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from University of New South Wales and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is a Techstars Seattle mentor who loves to discuss MVPs, product strategy and technology in general.
About the host
Anne Retterer is the Founder and CEO of Mindspand - an online community that enables organizations to list course offerings and provide access to services for local customers. Prior to starting Mindspand, Anne managed the product portfolio at Expedia and established an investment fund for tech companies in Chile with Hambrecht & Quest (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.). Anne holds an MBA from UC Davis and currently lives in Seattle.