Design your platform model, using platform thinking to network your resources.
Every organization has different types of resources: things, people, ideas (in the form of intellectual property and technologies) and connections. Each of these tends to correspond to a value model—a way of bringing those resources to market. Networking your resources means using them to generate network effects by helping people connect, co-create and achieve Shared Purpose.
Networking different resources leads to different business strategies, as shown in the examples throughout this chapter.
What are you connecting to create network effects?
Consider the different strategies of Google Maps and Waze. Both are mobile apps designed to help people navigate and avoid traffic. But one does so by networking things and ideas, while the other does it by networking people and connections.
Google Maps uses anonymized data from the GPS of drivers’ mobile devices (things), relying on APIs and algorithms (ideas) to generate traffic conditions in real time.
Waze has cultivated a community where people share what they are seeing as they are driving.
Like Google Maps, Waze creates a constantly updating repository of traffic information. But with Waze, people (called Wazers) are the nodes that are connected to create the body of knowledge, as they share information about the drives they’re taking in realtime. Eventually, Google acquired Waze to combine the various forms of value.
Identify resources which you could connect—or connect better—to create network effects in your current ecosystem.
In order to advance Shared Purpose, a platform needs to create a mindshift and connect available resources and social currency so it can generate network effects and achieve 10X results.
What is the goal shared by everyone connected by this platform?
What is the vehicle that creates exponential value through network effects?
What is the shift from one mental model to another required to use this platform?
What resources (things, people, ideas, connections) are connected to create network effects?
What is the medium of exchange used to strengthen relationships in this platform’s community?
How is value increased as each new member joins and participates?
What exponential outcomes will this platform generate?
Wikipedia is connecting the knowledge of thousands of people all over the planet in a free online encyclopedia.
A large community of editors, guided by Wikipedia’s Five Principles, works to ensure and improve the quality of the work.
“Unlock the world’s knowledge”
Online encyclopedia
From reader to editor
Internet, users, knowledge
Articles, changes, comments
Value from other readers sharing their knowledge as editors
Quantity, quality and cost (free)
Cosmetics company Sephora has a vibrant online Beauty Board community, where customers can post their “looks” and the makeup used to create them.
“Be fearless”
Beauty Board
From buyer to expert
Makeup lovers, expertise, purchase history, mobile cameras
Looks, cosmetics, tips
Value from how others are using products
Product usage, customer confidence, loyalty
John Deere has networked their tractors and other farm machinery by equipping them with sensors and linking them via the Internet of Things.
Machinery captures information about farming conditions, shares it with other machines which analyze it using artificial intelligence to recommend ways to optimize outcomes.
“Healthier and more productive farming”
Internet of Things system with artificial intelligence
From equipment to “smart farming”
Farmers, machinery, crops, data
Data as currency between networked machines
Value increases as system gets smarter with each new piece of data
Higher crop yields, lower costs, fewer chemicals
Use this worksheet to experiment with your vision for a platform model.
For each platform, write down the elements that correspond to each of these categories:
