This executive summary explains why we released an updated version of the Platform Design Toolkit - The definitive set of design thinking and system modeling tools to design digital and non digital Platforms to access powerful Ecosystems and reach objectives way beyond the boundaries of your firm. For More information on the Toolkit visit: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com For more complete presentation and context post see: http://meedabyte.com/2015/11/06/platform-design-toolkit-2-0-open-for-comments/

1. The definitive set of design thinking and
system modeling tools to design digital and
non digital Platforms to access powerful
Ecosystems and reach objectives way beyond
the boundaries of your firm
Simone Cicero
@meedabyte #PDToolkit
www.meedabyte.com
2.0 Draft
Executive
Summary
WWW.PLATFORMDESIGNTOOLKIT.COM

2. This is an EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Know more about the Platform Design
Toolkit, get in touch with us and register
to the Platform Design Newsletter at:
WWW.PLATFORMDESIGNTOOLKIT.COM

3. ● First signals of a shift in
business models
● Business Model Canvas not “fit”
for multi sided business
● Launched in 2013 in Barcelona
Design Week
● Two tools (PD Canvas,
Motivation Matrix)
Mission: help designers design
multi sided business models
Help designers identify value
flows and design channels
accordingly
The motivation matrix to
look into motivations to
participate
The PD Canvas to map
the whole of a multi
sided platform model
The launch of PDT
(2013)

4. Moving towards a
post-industrial age
Firms are less about
organizing production
but more into
organizing interaction
Strong signals of such an
evolution were already
clear in 2013
The Original idea
behind PDT 1.0

5. More Studies confirmed superior
nature of networked business
models: the Pentagrowth
A research study and model that
described the five exponential
growth levers identified after
studying 50 organisations which
have grown more
than 50% in terms of revenue
and number of users between
2008 and 2013.
Result: growth is seen as a function of
connectivity, enablement and
empowerment of users and partners - a
result of interaction and reach.

6. “Our business model classification and analysis says that
Network Orchestrators outperform companies with other
business models on several key dimensions: higher
valuations relative to their revenues, faster growth, larger
profit margins.” (Deloitte and Open Matters Study)
Asset Builders: build, develop, and
lease physical assets
Service Providers: provide services to
customers in form of billable hours
Technology Creators: develop and sell
intellectual property
Network Orchestrators:
create a network of peers
in which the participants
interact and share in the
value creation.
More Studies
confirmed superior
nature of networked
business models:
the Value Shift
(Deloitte + Open
Matters)
NETWORK
ORCHESTRATORS
The latest evolution in
business model for
interconnected world

7. The PLATFORM
is a tool to let the
Firm access the
ecosystem
The boundaries of
the firm overlap with
the boundaries of
the Platform
The evolution of the
platform is to reach
bigger ecosystems
FIRMS BUILD
PLATFORMS
TO ACCESS
ECOSYSTEMS
AND SHAPE MARKETS

8. SHAPING
STRATEGY
“…an exciting potential is the ability to
change how an entire marketplace
operates and capture more value by doing
so.
…restructure entire markets and industries
by designing new platforms and offering
powerful incentives to motivate third
parties to participate on them.
…ecosystems enable the participation of
large and small organizations (or
individuals) in creating value at a scale
beyond the possibilities of a single firm
from Deloitte’s “Business ecosystems come of age”

9. Tim O’Reilly on Platforms
“In many ways, [platforms like] Uber and
Airbnb represent a 21st century update of
the franchising model. In franchising, the
parent company brands and markets the
product, sets standards for producing it,
and charges a licensing fee and receives a
percentage of revenue from each of its
franchisees. The difference is that
technology radically lowers the barriers
to being a franchisee. In many ways, you
can call the modern trend 'the franchise
of one.'"
Exceprted from:
”Networks and the Nature of the Firm”

10. The nature of the Firm is changing
Increasingly the
tradeoff between
coordination (through
platform) and
motivation (through a
shared marketplace)
works better than the
extremes (industrial
firm or open market)

11. How to define “Platforms” in the end?

12. “...a governance structure that determines
who can participate, what roles they might
play, how they might interact, and how
disputes get resolved plus additional set of
protocols or standards typically designed to
facilitate connection, coordination, and
collaboration.”
John Hagel’s definition exceprted from:
”Business ecosystems come of age”
How to define “Platforms” in the end?

13. Offering to the ecosystem participants an opportunity to get
better, professionalize, get more opportunities and hone
their capabilities, platforms represent powerful tools to
answer the disruption driven performance pressure of our
times
Aggregation Platforms - focused on simple
transactions, connecting users to resources
mostly in Hub and Spoke -
middleman/gatekeeper - fashion (Eg: Apple,
Airbnb)
Mobilization Platforms - helping people to
“act together”, fostering long term
relationships (Eg: Linux, Li & Fung)
Social Platforms - focused on social
interactions, connecting individuals to
communities, tend to foster mesh
relationship networking (Eg: Facebook)
Learning Platforms: facilitate
learning, bring participants together
to share insights, foster deep/trust
based relationships, help
participants realize more together
and hone their capabilities (Eg:
World of Warcraft)
Always according to
J. Hagel: we can
recognize four
types of Platforms
LEARNING
IS THE KEY
FEATURE
OF PLATFORMS

14. Platforms are tools for Learning Platforms help brands reach
unthinkable results
Platforms support individuals
and companies hone capabilities
and improve performance
providing an effective answer to
the pressure coming from digital
disruption
By empowering others in the
ecosystems and by creating
channels for transactions and
relationships, brands can
multiply their potential and
impact on markets way beyond
their reach
Why do platforms win?

15. Creating Channels Empowering Contributions
PDT can help you understand if
your platform has the right
channels in place to support
those who want to share value
and transact: the more this
happens inside your platform the
more it will be a successful one
PDT can help you designing
services that support Partners
and Peers to perform better as
professional and build more
value on your platform,
dramatically improving
resilience
How can Platform Design Toolkit help me
design the future of my business processes?

16. 2.0 Draft
Open for
Comments
WWW.PLATFORMDESIGNTOOLKIT.COM
Detailed
Explanation
for full context see:
bit.ly/PDT20DRAFT

17. The Platform Design Toolkit 2.0: main changes!
● a revision of the type and set of key ecosystem entities you need to model
(now including Partners besides Platform Owners, Peers and external
Stakeholders)
● a bigger set of canvases (now four instead of two)
● a broader integration of aspects that go beyond the value production, such
as evaluating externalities, platform governance and platform innovation

18. Platform
Owners
Stakeholders Partners Peer
Producers
Peer
Consumers
players who owns
the vision behind
the realization of
the market and
ensure that the
platform exists
entities that have
a specific interest
in platform
success or
failure, in
controlling
platform
externalities and
outcomes
professional
entities that seek
to create
additional
professional
value and to
collaborate with
platform owners
with a stronger
relationship
entities
interested in
providing value
on the supply
side of the
ecosystem/mark
etplace, seeking
for a better
performance
entities interested
in consuming,
utilizing,
accessing the
value that the is
created through
and on the
platform
A model of roles and entities involved in Platforms

19. The PDT 2.0 - Roles
The Platform Owners This category refers to the “owners” of the Platform: ultimately this set of
players owns the vision behind the realization of the market, and is ultimately
responsible to ensure that the platform exists in production.
Typically: Startups/Scale-ups …then corporate firms, shaping firms; nothing
prevents this to be a non-profit organization, a foundation or a cooperative. In,
still rare, cases peers can also be somehow ownersof the platform – such as
in the Bitcoin Blockchain ecosystem, where peers collaboratively, effectively
own the infrastructure that makes the platform.
Examples: Airbnb, Apple (re the Apple app store ecosystem), Google (re the
Android ecosystem for example), the Bitcoin miners network, Tripadvisor,
WordPress (the firm), etc...

20. Stakeholders Are the entities that have a specific interest in platform success or failure, in
controlling platform externalities and outcomes, in regulating it or in
exercising rights in the platform governance
Typically: public actors or bodies dealing with regulation and control of
platforms on a local basis, representatives of communities of peers and
partners involved in the value creation, pre-existing institutions.
Examples: A municipality affected by the gentrification effects of short time
rentals, the government, a holding group, a pre-existing incumbent, a pre-
existing network or association of professionals interested in joining the
platform.
The PDT 2.0 - Roles

21. Peers (Peer Segments) – Consuming Peer (CP, users): these are entities – most of the times individuals but can
also be small/medium business and single representatives or teams in bigger
organizations – interested in consuming, utilizing, accessing the value that the is created
through and on the platform. Eventually they may evolve into producing peers, when they
realize that beyond fulfilling a need they can seek evolution opportunities.
– Producing Peers (PP, citizen producers, prosumers, providers….): these are entities –
most of the times individuals – interested in providing value on the supply side of the
ecosystem/marketplace, usually seeking for opportunities to improve their professionality
and honing their capabilities towards a better performance
Examples: The Airbnb hosts (PP), the Airbnb travelers (CP), WordPress bloggers (CP),
Salesforce customers (CP), AngelList Angels (CP), AngelList Startups (PP), Houzz users
(CP)
The PDT 2.0 - Roles

22. Partners Partners are essentially professional entities – individuals and small/medium
enterprises, most of the times – that seek to create additional professional
value and to collaborate with platform owners at a stronger stage of
relationship. Typically, partners are professional value creators that tend to
specialize in a niche or advanced/premium product/service and become
better and better within time. Partners sometimes also facilitate, cater,
enhance the value production by acting as broker, facilitators, connectors.
Examples: Airbnb Superhosts, WordPress theme developers, Apple or
Android developers, Salesforce Forge developers, AngelList syndication
SuperAngels, WordPress Cloud service providers, Houzz professionals
The PDT 2.0 - Roles

23. The PDT 2.0 - Other key concepts
Infrastructure and
core components
Infrastructure and core components are controlled and owned by the platform owners and governed
according to the platform governance. Assets that ensure the platform works and is usable by the
ecosystem.
External
components
(Bricks/APIS)
External components can be used to build and reinforce the value propositions of any given
platform. Most of the times these components are available in PAYG (Pay As You Go) mode (or in
general as a utility) and are easily integrated with the platform workflow.
The platform itself can offer utility like APIs and bricks to other players .
Channels (as evolution
of Contexts)
Every relationships is born in a context and transactions happen better thanks to controlled and
designed contexts that evolve into what we call channels. A context is defined more broadly than a
channel and the latter can be often considered an evolution of the first. A refined and optimized
channel should be available to make transactions easier. When complex transactions are broken
into several sub-transactions a channel must exist for every phase to happen smoothly.

24. Transactions and value
Platforms are ways to organize interactions and
ultimately transactions among an ecosystem
A Transaction is as a sub-action (part of a more
complex “experience”) during which value - in different
forms - is either created, provided, transferred or traded
among two (most often) or more entities.
● Typically pertains to two parties
● Value is consumed (as in utilities) or exchanged (as in exchanges) or
delivered (as in services) in whatever form: monetary value, reputation,
experience, use value, curation, knowledge, information, energy, kudos,
etc...
● Value can be tangibly identified and most of the time it can be
measured - though not precisely (intangibles)
Utilities: providing a third party (that can also be and often
is another platform) with componentized information and
access to the whole system of services and exchanges
happening in the ecosystem, through a packetized and/or
programmable interface (eg: APIs).
Services: provided by the platform as “organized services”
(by organising components, infrastructures, resources to
provide a common service) directly to Partners (enabling
services) and Producing Peers (empowering services)in one-
to-many pattern. Industrialized services can be provided to
peer consumers as complementary of the experiences
provided by the ecosystem through the platform.
Exchanges: these transactions happen between two
entities in the ecosystem and consist of exchanging or
transferring ownership of a currency or other stores of value
(assets, money, token, credits), providing elements of
intangible value (such as reputation, trust, kudos, likes, etc…),
providing labour/work or enabling access to resources.

26. The PDT 2.0 - Value Generation Activities
Maintaining & Producing the Infrastructure
Running the infrastructure the platform ultimately relies on to work enables value creation to happen entirely.
Core Value Proposition
The primary value that the platform seeks to create for its core target
(can be Partners, Peer Producer or Peer Consumer).
Most of the times, in platforms and ecosystem that include Peer
Consumers this is the peer segment ultimately being the target of the
core value proposition. In many occasions a – even if the ecosystem
includes peer consumers – ultimately the Core Value Proposition may be
directed to Partners serving the peer consumer base.
Ancillary Value
Proposition
The ancillary value proposition is a secondary value that
the platform seeks to enable. This is usually targeted to
the same target segment of the Core Value proposition
but can also be targeted to a different one.
ENABLING
From Exchanges
and Services

27. The PDT 2.0 - Steering Activities
Design and
Evolution of the
Platform
This activity is key to enable a platform that is able to evolve and adapt to changing conditions
and to cope with changing demands in the ecosystem (see How Platforms Evolve). Example of
such activities is the evolution of a platform design (eg: improving software code base),
improving security of data, designing policies and strategies for reputation management,
designing the overall user-journey, etc…
Governance of the
Platform
Governance of the platform relates with complex decision affecting the internal and external of
ecosystem scope and entity. Examples of such activity relates with conflict resolution with
stakeholder, key decisions in ownership, value distribution, policing, etc...
Every platform needs to evolve and be
governed therefore is subjected to two key
“steering” activities that shape its evolution

28. The PDT 2.0 (Draft)
The new set of Tools
ADVANCED
ESSENTIALS

29. Used to map all actors in
an ecosystem: prioritize
entities according to
potential impact for
platform success, and
according to the level of
attraction they have for it,
and end up with a set of
maximum five entities
globally (peer consumers,
peer producers, partners).
Also to be used to track
bricks and API’s to be
used in building the
platform.
Link for comments: https:
//goo.gl/AKDJJK
ESSENTIALSESSENTIALS

30. Used to dig deep into the
motivation that push
entities in the ecosystem
to participate: helps you
track the main
advantages in
participating in the the
ecosystem through the
platform (namely, needs
they can meet,
opportunities they can
find and such positive
outcomes) and what each
entity can “give to” others.
Link for comments: https:
//goo.gl/0NxHd5
ESSENTIALS

31. Used to rapidly map the
overall platform’s
dynamics, important
resources and enabling
and empowering potential
- will help to understand if
the platform is doing its
job of sustaining the
ecosystem in value
production, will also help
you identify enabling and
empowering services that
the platforms should
provide.
Link for comments: https:
//goo.gl/NMlQcc
ESSENTIALSESSENTIALS

32. Used to understand better
and dig up the the details
of the transactions
happening in the
ecosystem. The use of
the transaction matrix is
not mandatory but it is of
great help in identifying
the key elements of each
transaction that happens
in the ecosystem.
Link for comments: https:
//goo.gl/lYpxQf
ADVANCED

33. Used to identify who’s to
produce the “Core Value
Proposition” and the other
Value Generation
Activities and how such
activities impact on
external stakeholders and
to complement this by
thinking how the different
entities should be
involved in platform
steering activities.
Link for comments: https:
//goo.gl/jmeiOU
ADVANCED

34. This is an EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Know more about the Platform Design
Toolkit, get in touch with us and register
to the Platform Design Newsletter at:
WWW.PLATFORMDESIGNTOOLKIT.COM
www.meedabyte.com
This work was originally inspired by the Business Model Generation Canvas by Alex
Osterwalder (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.To view a copy of
this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

35. For consulting, advisory and workshop
requests on Platform Design get in touch:
> hello@platformdesigntoolkit.com
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonecicero www.meedabyte.com