What can we Learn from Platforms …about Platforms?
There is no end to Learning. This is a truism for Individuals and for Enterprises. Platforms, however, establish a Shared Mental Model which provides consistency and allows predictable communication, avoiding the compounding negative effects of complexity & scale (i.e. Brooks’ Law)
There is, however, a Limit to How Fast Learning Can Happen.
What sets that Limit on our Learning & Communication? What is holding us back? Let’s Dig in!
First, Learning is the ability to assimilate information from our environment with existing knowledge in order to enhance our ability to respond to or predict future patterns in the environment.
Individual Learning
Scientists continue to research how differences in the brain structure affect processing speed, but there are a number of structural factors that are believed to have an affect:
- Space between Neurons
- Meylin Coating thickness on Neuron Sheaths
- Brain Chemical levels (NeuroTransmitters)
- Brain Pathway Efficiency
These structures allow individuals to learn and process information. For any software system to be used and valuable, users need to learn new concepts and their relationship (i.e. a “Mental Model’). This requirement is obvious, but described in great detail here. The following quote is excerpted from that paper:
“The concepts of a software system are the ideas you need to understand in order to use it. For example, to use a word processor such as Microsoft Word effectively, you need to know what a paragraph is (whereas no such concept is required to use a text editor). To use Twitter, you need to understand tweets, hashtags and the concept of one user following another. To use Facebook, you need to understand posts, tags and friends. To use Adobe Photoshop, you need to understand pixels, layers and masks (and channels, profiles and so on). Some concepts, such as tweets, are simple and easy to grasp; some, such as tags, are more complicated. Some systems, such as Twitter, have only a few concepts; others, such as Photoshop, have many.” — Daniel Jackson
Clearly, the simplicity of the “Mental Model” is related to how easy software is for users to learn it. Complex software and their “Mental Models” take time to learn and become fluent in.
On the other hand, many systems don’t present a clear Mental Model, much less one designed for simplicity and effective evolution and use. Such systems become unchangeable, or changeable only with great effort.
Organizational Learning
Just as a learning brain must recognize, categorize, and assimilate information into concepts and theories about the world, so do Organizations. Organizations learn more slowly, because the new information has to be processed at the Individual level (in order to refine existing Mental Models) and at the Org Structure level (in order to change arrangements, practices, and expectations). Decades of research continue to emphasize the importance of focusing on Individual mental models when trying to understand Organizational Learning. ( Here is an excerpt from recent research)
The “Platform Superpower”
Platforms bring many advantages beyond creating a Shared Mental Model. They provide consistency and allow predictable growth, avoiding the compounding effect of complexity, lack of clarity, and accumulated errors that typically results from unmanaged growth. They also can be structured to make the compounding effect of value possible using a simple linear growth of adoption. Platform Examples that create value while managing costs include:
- Telephone Network — Growth via add’l phone lines, Value via (phone lines)^phone lines
- Standardized Parts supply chain — Producers (and Consumers) of made-to-fit parts used standards to increase the addressable market (or supplier options) for their parts, while simplifying supply chain logistics.
- Amazon.com — Consumers achieve more and more selection while new Vendors benefit from easy access to the growing use of Amazon.com and Amazon Prime.
- Assembly Lines — Manufacturers (Ford) were able to drastically lower the cost to manufacture automobiles by simultaneously simplifying the assembly work for workers and efficiently coordinating the hundreds of tasks and parts that needed to come together.
- Apple iPhone, iTunes, App Store, iCloud — Apple’s iPhone platform provides a seamless experience transparently brokering all the needed touchpoints required by millions of connected mobile devices, but maintaining a facade of simplicity & consistency for the user.
- Cloud Foundry — Streamlines Operations for hundreds of VM’s and thousands of Cloud Native Applications while simplifying the developer experience down to “CF Push”.
The dynamics of platforms can also be understood better by identifying the “network effects” at play. Most Platforms join 2 or more network effects into a well defined relationship (or contract) between the networks. This coordination of network effects is what gives Platforms their SuperPower.
To understand all the different types of Network Effects, I suggest you visit https://www.nfx.com/post/network-effects-manual/. It lists and describes 13 different network effects ( and Counting!).
I propose that establishing a Shared Mental Model is a new “social network effect”. It is likely one of the most important and frequently overlooked network effects to exploit in a Platform!
To learn more about Platforms, check out my previous article:
https://medium.com/@MatthewEGunter/platformfirst-thinking-is-required-for-sharedunderstanding-ad76bd0ef381
