OnStartups

As part of  “The Software Business” class I am taking at MIT with Professor Michael Cusumano, I participated in a team that presented topics on software platforms.

My segment of the presentation centered around how to strategically select a platform from those available.  More precisely, the theme was identifying the key variables that would influence a particular platform choice and how organizations should go about assessing the various tradeoffs.

This is the first in a series of articles on this topic whereby I drill-down a little deeper.

Here is a brief outline of the topics to come in this series:

1.       What’s a Platform?

2.       Target Market (Customers + Users)

3.       The Dangers Of Niche Platforms

4.       Platform Builder or Complementor?

5.       Reuse and Repurposing

6.       Open vs. Closed

 Stay tuned.