Designing your Product as a Platform

Designing Your Product as a PlatformMicah Laaker, Yahoo!

Caveats• Platform = software framework that powers

2 or more products

• Lots of technology “recommendations” that are mostly used for example purposes; before adopting technology, investigate for latest updates to this space

• Internal platform? External platform? Similar considerations.

Why?

Open

questions when embarking on Platform Design• How “open” to go?• How do I leverage Users?• How do I shape my Data?• How do I engage

Developers?4 1

2

3

4

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccked/133164205/

1 How Open?

Open Source• Free to use • Community contributions • Decentralized• High reliability

Open 1/13

Open Infrastructure• Pay-as-you-go, only-

what-you-need cloud computing

• Outsource hosting, ops, and processing

Open 2/13

Open Architecture• Anyone can mod your

product... on your product

• Plug’n’Play

Open 3/13

Open Standards• Community-driven • Goal is inter-operability• Software and Hardware

Open 4/13

Open Ontology• Describe what

can not be seen • Future-proof your data• Goal is the

Semantic Web

Open 5/13

Open Access• APIs• Multi-channel access• 3rd-party

Developers/Partners can build on your platform

Open 6/13

Open Canvas• Product becomes a

vehicle for 3rd-party content

• Fast food sites: your content to-go

Open 7/13

Open Content• User is the editor by

programming self-relevant content

• Content comes to you when its ready

Open 8/13

Open Mic• The product is populated

entirely by users• Users own their content• Products support

making/discovery of content

Open 9/13

Open Forum• Users contribute ancillary

data• Ratings, reviews, ranking,

and link submissions• Heavy social interaction

Open 10/13

Open Door• User as product

decision-maker• Reveal operational

details• Communication is

open to all

Open 11/13

Open Borders• Settings/configs can be

imported/exported• No (product)

commitments• Users can come-and-go

Open 12/13

Open Identity• User as owner of identity• 1 ID for many sites• Power to the people

Open 13/13

In what way(s) are you “open?”

• How does our product support our users?

• How does our product engage our users?

Leverage Users2

User Identity• Support of OpenID as a relying party

• Aggregation of cross-web identity

• Leverage existing Relationship graphs

Support function

• Access to User data and configurations

• Lifestreaming

• Attention XML

User BroadcastingSupport function

User Feedback• Suggestions

• Metrics

Support function

User ContributionsUser is the owner and creator of your product’s content

Engagement model

User EnhancementsUser adds value to existing content/system:

Engagement model

User Extensions• User as part of the product

• Repairs, adds, and extends data

Engagement model

LeverageUsers

3 ShapeData

Define the object

Describe the Object• Use Microformats/RDFa

• Assist machines in making sensible decisions about your data

• Improve SEO

• Make future integrations/product ideas feasible with small investment upfront

Connect the Object• Support relationships

between data

• Social Graph

• Interests

• Kevin Bacon for Data

• Use FOAF + XFN

Distribute Objects• Expose XML/feeds of your items

• Map your feeds thru YQL Open Tables

Data Model• Define Objects

• Describe Objects

• Connect Objects

• Distribute Objects

Engage Developers

4

Privacy/Security• User’s creds. should never be shared

• Industry-standard auth. protocol (OAuth)

• User must control relationships

Canvases• 3rd-party content inside your product

• Technology: Apps & Widgets

Service ExposureMake product functionality available as a service when applicable

UI ComponentsBuild (and make available) UI as components when utilized in 2 or more locations

Policy• Define SLAs and Commercial TOU

• Establish rate limits and means of surpassing

• Communicate status of platform

Developer Engagement• Privacy/Security

• Canvas support

• Service exposure

• UI Components

• Policy

1

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4

Platform Design Task List• Determine “Open-ness”

• Define User Leverage model

• Define Data model

• Define Developer Engagement model

Open PlatformOne-Sheet

UX User Exp. Dev. Exp. Data Model

Open Source

Open Infrastructure

Open Architecture

Open Standards

Open Ontology

Open Access

Open Canvas

Open Content

Open Mic

Open Forum

Open Door

Open Borders

Open Identity

In Closing• Learn more about the

Yahoo! Open Strategy: developer.yahoo.com/yos/

• Contact:Micah Laaker / www.laaker.commicah@laaker.com