Your CEO returns from a conference and announces that the company needs to become a platform. The roadmap pivots overnight. Six months later, you have an API nobody uses, a partner programme with no partners, and a core product that stopped improving. The platform dream collided with product reality.
The distinction between a product and a platform is one of the most consequential decisions in product strategy. Products deliver value directly to users. Platforms enable others to create and deliver value. Both models can succeed, but they demand fundamentally different approaches to development, growth, and monetisation.
The Core Idea
A product solves a problem for its users directly. Netflix streams content to you. Figma lets you design interfaces. Notion gives you a workspace. In each case, the company controls the experience end-to-end and delivers value straight to the user.
A platform enables others to create value. YouTube lets creators upload and viewers watch. Shopify lets merchants build stores. Salesforce lets developers build apps on its infrastructure. The platform company does not deliver all the value itself — it creates the conditions for value to emerge from an ecosystem.