Metrics, Reporting and Surveys
You make what you measure, as they say. But when it comes to providing platform products it's doubly important to track metrics and remain deeply engaged with your customers and developers. Without the ability to discern what your community is doing with your platform, you may miss useful opportunities for your business.
Platform metrics work in two directions: looking backward through the use of quantitative and anecdotal reporting, and forward-looking subjective metrics based on data-gathering techniques such as community surveys.
Platform Associates has architected and implemented data-gathering schemes and surveys at a number of companies including eBay and Yahoo!.
Let us put our number-crunching expertise to work for you. Contact us to find out how we can work together to give you better business intelligence for your platform product.
Platform Product Marketing
The landscape of technology product marketing has altered radically in the last five years. As companies seek to engage more deeply with users and partners while opening their products to them as platforms, the risks — and potential rewards — increase.
Platform Associates provides strategic marketing consulting services to platform businesses. Our experience in this area includes a number of Silicon Valley startups. We also founded and led eBay's first platform evangelism team, which helped take their developer program from a handful of partners to 20,000 developers in 24 months.
Our marketing consulting services include:
- Go-to-market strategy for new products
- Product evangelism
- Blogger outreach
- Blog-based marketing
- Newsletter production
- Public relations
Contact us and let's talk about how we can help your platform business.
Platform Product Evangelism
An evangelist encourages others to join their cause. Platform product evangelists generate interest and excitement for platform products, engaging adopters as deeply as necessary to ensure they get the right product at the right time. Platform evangelism is a hybrid role that falls on the cusp between technology, marketing, training, public relations, product management, and business development.
Large companies are increasingly utilizing evangelists as a way to reach partners and developers they couldn't ordinarily engage. But for small companies or startups on a budget, the evangelism role can be difficult to justify. That's why Platform Associates provides platform product evangelism on an outsourced basis.
We formed and led eBay's first platform evangelism team. We've performed this role for a number of other technology businesses as well. We have a good understanding of how to turn a platform product into a thriving ecosystem.
Contact us to talk about how our product evangelism can help your business.
Developer and Partner Relations
Increasingly, partnerships between platform companies involves technical integration. For an open developer platform, this usually means you'll want to devote some attention to the developer relations role, to ensure that developers and partners can access your platform in a multitude of scenarios with a minimum of friction.
Platform Associates performs developer relations services on an outsourced basis. We can develop a developer relations plan and help you execute on that plan to ensure that your developers and partners are getting the right information to thrive on your platform.
We've performed the developer relations role at large and small companies. We originated the concept of developer relations at eBay and led Yahoo's first dedicated developer relations team; we took both programs from closed partner programs to vibrant ecosystems with tens of thousands of developers.
Contact us and let's talk about developer relations for your platform business.
Platform Product Strategy
Platform Associates provides platform strategy consulting for both new and established businesses. Our objective is to work with your management, product, legal and engineering teams to help make your platform business compelling to third parties (including users, developers, and partners).
Our experience in this area comes from a number of start-ups over the years, as well as the developer platforms at eBay and Yahoo!.
A good platform grows from a dozen good strategic decisions up front and a dozen good tactical decisions each day. Contact us and let's talk about how we can assist you with the strategy and tactics for your platform business.
