Best of #PlatformThinking – 2015

Every year, I bring out a post in December highlighting the best articles from the year gone by.

2015 has been a great year for platforms, in general, and for my work in this space, in particular. Moving on from the activity among startups, the discussion on platforms has taken centrestage at the C-level across Fortune 500 firms. Gartner declared that it’s annual CIO survey reveals platform thinking as the next big focus. While being interviewed by The Economist, I was pleasantly surprised to see Germany’s push towards platforms at all levels of the economy. I’ve also had extremely enriching experiences working with leaders across multiple industries looking to move to platform-based business models in Europe, the US and Asia.

Well, back on the topic, here are the best nuggets of 2015. I usually share the top 10 articles from the year gone by. However, given the different formats launched this year, I’m going to share a combination of books, articles, slideshares and videos that I believe make the best reading at the end of the year. Here you go.

Book

By far, my most significant contribution to the study of platforms this year was the book, Platform Scale. It’s been running as a #1 bestseller on Amazon consistently since launch. You can:
1. Purchase the book, or
2. Get free access to the first three chapters, or
3. Enter the book giveaway on GoodReads (before Dec 31st, 2015).

Slideshares

The Platform Stack: 10 startup business puzzles demystified

The Platform Manifesto

Key articles

APIs and platforms: How interfaces and access enable the networked economy
A detailed article/paper exploring the importance of APIs, the design considerations involved, and their impact on all business communication in a networked world.

What the Uber-Lyft war teaches us about building the next Uber for X
The underlying economics of why Uber’s network effects aren’t defensible and why Lyft, GrabTaxi and Didi Kuadi are creating an alliance.

Marketplace 2.0
Emerging design principles for creating high engagement marketplaces.

The Platform Stack
A simple, yet comprehensive, framework to understand different types of platforms.

Videos

Emerging patterns in disruption and transformation – Panel from the G20 Summit 2014 events

Library

Finally, I also launched the Platform Thinking Library this year which has all the articles on this blog available in downloadable PDF format.

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What’s next

Alongside the launch of Platform Revolution, I will be launching the following in the first half of 2016:

1. A series of 10-12 slide decks during the first four months of the year, capturing the key ideas in every chapter of the upcoming book Platform Revolution.
2. A series of free ebooks on various themes around platforms.
3. An educational module going to deep strategic and implementation detail on platform execution.

Stay tuned as we continue our journey into the world of platforms in 2016.