I would like to thank all the readers of Platform Professional. There are now several thousand of you around the world.
Altogether I’ve written 30 articles over the past year that cover a range of topics. Some focus on broad platform trends. These include the rise of web3 platforms, creator economy platforms, experience platforms, and platforms focused on supporting the transition to cleaner energy and transportation. Other articles focus on organizational and managerial issues that are specific to platforms—such as key roles like platform community manager, platform product manager and platform data analytics. The third group of articles look at platform professional job opportunities sought by specific companies. These included positions at Amazon, Disney, Nike, and Abbot to name but a few.
I list the 5 most popular articles in descending order below. If you missed any of these, feel free to check them out:
#5 Rising Demand for Web3 Platform Talent
The demand for Web3 talent is growing. Each month there are now thousands of jobs posted by companies seeking to hire the talent they need to build, innovate, and grow Web3 projects. Since many of these projects are platforms, the surge in demand is creating new opportunities for platform professionals. These can be broken into three broad groups: crypto exchanges, NFT platforms and Metaverse platforms. These are not mutually exclusive categories, so the groupings are more for emphasis. A tour through web3 job roles indicates, blockchain technology, NFTs and virtual experiences are often intertwined.
#4 Strategic Importance of Ecosystem/ Community Managers
This article examined 15 active searches posted for ecosystem/ community leaders. These roles at their core are network effect catalyzers. If we dig through the job descriptions it becomes clear that they seek to fulfill two broad functions. One is to activate network effects on the demand side of the platform. This is a critical function as this is what generally drives revenues from users/customers. The other is to activate network effects on the supply side of the platform. These are the third-party complements that provide the content or functionality of the platform.
#3 Power of Experience Platforms
Joe and I have teamed up to explore the many ways in which platforms are now intersecting with the Experience Economy in powerful ways. We have undertaken the first global survey of experience platforms, creating a rich data set that provides insights into the types of experience platforms and how to leverage them for future growth and competitive positioning. These range from large experience marketplaces to smaller specialized platforms that match curated or newly created experiences to select target groups, such as company employees or highly valued customers.
#2 Evolution of the Enterprise and the Age of Platforms
If we look across history, we find that the “hand” has served as a metaphor for describing the complex interplay between the enterprise and the environment in which it operates. The “invisible hand” metaphor helped to capture the conditions of the preindustrial period when proprietorships ruled. This was later replaced by the invisible hand, with the rise of the large multidivisional firm. Today, enterprises operate in an environment shaped by computers, networks, data, and algorithms. We can call this the “digital hand” to distinguish it from previous periods. The article concludes that today firms must align to the environment of the digital hand or fall behind.
This article presents a framework to help kickstart the process of preparing strategic plans for 2022 and beyond with a special focus on the rapidly evolving platform landscape. It suggests that an effective way to start is by collecting and categorizing platform trends. These trends should be categorized into three buckets: what we are Seeing Now, Beginning to See, and, finally, what is On the Horizon.
As the platform economy continues to grow in significance and scope, the demand for platform professionals will continue to grow. I look forward to following these developments in 2022. As always, your ideas and insights are always welcome.
Happy New Year! 🎉🎉