1. Managing Product Platforms Best Practices for Creating Value and Network Effects Michael Salerno, Product Management, Cohealo, Inc.

2. About This Sessions Presenter O Product Management at Healthcare startup Cohealo O Co-founder Boston Product Management Association O New Venture Advisor for start-ups competing at Boston University and University of Massachusetts O Lean Startup Challenge Mentor O Expertise in Enterprise Product Management 3. What is a Product Platform? O A Product Platform is a system of services and interfaces that connects: O The platform must add value by using data to match producers and consumers and provide tools to facilitate repeatable and frictionless interactions. Those that produce (or own) something of value Those in need to consume something of matching value With 4. Product Platforms Take Many Forms Platform Produce/Consume Care.com Helps families find child care, senior care, special needs care, pet care, etc. Quantopian Custom trading algorithms StackOverflow Question and answers for programmers Coursera Free Online University Courses Covestor Mirrors Portfolio Manager's trading in your own account 5. The Good and The Bad O Fact: Industries are increasingly being disrupted by product platforms. O Evidence: iTunes, Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Coursera, Wikipedia, YouTube all disrupted existing industries. O The Reality: Many businesses building new product platforms result in failure. Why? 6. What are Your Unique Challenges? 7. Start with the Core Value Unit1 O YouTube hosts (production) and viewing (consumption) of videos. O Kickstarter hosts (production) and backing (consumption) of projects! O Twitter enables the creation (production) and consumption of tweets! O Etsy facilitates selling (production) and buying (consumption) actual physical products leveraging information about them (listings)! O Uber enables booking a car leveraging information (car availability) to match producers (taxi drivers) with consumers (taxi seekers)!1Sangeet Paul Choudary, Platform Thinking 8. Interactions That Build Value Create Listing, UploadCreation Search, View, TransactConsumption Rate, Report, or Third-Party Source Curation Curation directly improves Quality for the purpose of increasing Creation or Consumption Quantity 9. Airbnb.com Example Curation includes participation with third-party services (i.e. photographers). Critical Interactions 10. Network Effects O As a product platform attracts more users, it becomes more valuable to those users. O When a network effect is present, the value of a product or service is dependent on the number of others using it. O To achieve network effects, focus on increasing the value of the Core Value Unit. 11. What Do We Measure? O Creation Metrics Remember, if done properly, Curation can provide an Unfair Advantage! O Curation Metrics O Consumption Metrics 12. Summary O The commercial success of a Product Platform isnt about its technology. O Interactions around the Core Value Unit is the source of value creation of the platform. O Curation is often the most overlooked activity, yet highly critical to commercial success. O Measure Product Platform health through Creation, Consumption and Curation metrics.