Modern businesses are increasingly turning to a platform approach to drive operational excellence and engineering effectiveness. These technical products and platforms, which encompass developer portals, infrastructure platforms, SDKs and more, are often tailored to efficiency optimizations and the relief of scaling pains. However, internally targeted business cases don’t have to be the only business value of platforms.
The potential of technical products and platforms extends beyond mere productivity enhancements, capability enablement and cost reduction. They hold the power to forge new revenue streams and strengthen relationships with employees, business partners and customers.
How is the platform creating gains and relieving pains for its users? How does it generate value for the business? A clearly derived value proposition for the business and users can be mapped to comparable external target groups. This is the key to uncover potential beyond technical capabilities.
Bonus: As a technical product manager these advanced opportunities for business value can fuel a visionary strategy and secure the buy-in from business owners and other decision makers.
Let’s explore four examples of business value of technical products and platforms that go beyond internal capabilities and enablement:
B2B partner/customer integration
Relationships between organizations that depend on the exchange of information and software can be strengthened with a platform that facilitates easy integration. Value streams often extend beyond corporate borders and require (intermediate) handovers. Platforms that bridge such handovers or create new links in the value stream can make sharing faster and, in turn, improve the value co-creation.
Example: An OEM lets their supplier directly integrate with their software delivery processes. Interfaces of the internal developer platform were externalized which allowed the supplier to link into the OEM’s CI/CD pipeline. This decreased the lead time for integration tests and faster feedback for the supplier.
Monetization
Platforms can offer the opportunity to open new revenue streams by monetizing APIs and data products. Existing and potential customers may be eager to leverage the platform’s data in order to enhance their operations and could be willing to pay for it.
Example: A logistics company partnered with Thoughtworks to build an IoT platform and complementary IoT products for their customers. Through customer research, we discovered that one customer was not interested in the IoT products themselves but highly interested in using the raw data for optimization analysis. By externalizing one of the data APIs, the company was able to capitalize on what was previously an internal-only IoT platform.
Developer satisfaction
In a competitive landscape for digital talent, organizations cannot afford to neglect employee satisfaction. A frictionless developer experience provides developers with intuitive tools and resources and thereby, increases their effectiveness and job satisfaction. While the gains may not be immediately apparent, the long-term impact on the organization's overall performance can be substantial.
Example: At Spotify, product teams are empowered to rollout experiments to a small set of users without needing additional permissions. This was made possible by an investment in the infrastructure required for user data and deployments. The dedicated platform team for this infrastructure focuses on enabling the A/B-testing of product teams. The developers now benefit from reduced cognitive load and faster feedback loops.
Content & talent acquisition
Organizations can position themselves as attractive employers for digital talents and developers by opening up design systems, APIs and developer portals to the public. This inclusive approach can lead to third-party contributions and content creation, enhancing the platform and enabling innovations.
Examples: Companies like Microsoft and Netflix have shown the power of open-source strategies in terms of improving brand recognition and leaving a mark in the tech industry. Also non-tech giants like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche are successfully supporting developers and startups to contribute to their ecosystems.
Review your internal platform for external use
While cost reductions, productivity increases and enablement of internal teams are valuable, they are not the only way to generate business value with a technical, internal platform.
As emphasized in the Amazon Mandate (2002), “all service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable, [...] to [be] exposed to developers in the outside world”.
Pondering this design challenge presents an innovation opportunity to advance platform strategies and designs - even when it continues to stay internal. How might your API, data product or platform provide value to the outside world?
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.
