Platform & web development
Digital platforms are not born on a drawing board. I accompany them from strategy through the design of the actors involved to technical implementation, in stages that are usable on their own.
A platform is not a product. It is a place where several parties do something with each other. Whoever builds one decides less about technology than about rules: who may take part, who gets what out of it, and what happens when somebody ignores them. The technology comes afterwards, and it is the easier half.
The work therefore runs in three stages, and each stands on its own. You can stop after the strategy and still hold something in your hands.
Platform strategy
A platform strategy mobilises an ecosystem so that it takes part in creating value. It is the combination of several elements: narrative, technologies, rules, channels, contexts, services, protocols and more. I help you identify them, picture them, and turn them into a strategy.
The questions involved are uncomfortable and they come early. Which problem does the platform solve, for whom, in a way that brings that person back. What makes the other side start at all while nobody is there yet. And what would be the reason to leave again.
What comes out is a picture of the ecosystem: its actors, the paths between them, and the points where something is created. It is not a business plan and not a market analysis; it is the ground on which you could write both.
Platform design
Platform design shapes the processes and the actors that are to take part. Incentive systems, co-benefits and stakeholder architecture play a dominant role here, as does the technical translation of the platform concept.
This is where the strategy becomes something you can draw: who puts something in, who takes something out, where moderation happens, where a rule decides and where a person does. It includes the unpleasant part, namely what happens to contributions nobody wants, and who is responsible for that.
Incentives are the core. A platform where one side works and the other harvests lasts exactly as long as the first side has no alternative.
Implementation
The concept becomes software: conception, development, process design. I build with proven open-source parts rather than dependencies that turn expensive later, and I build so that somebody else can carry it on in five years.
It is built in stages that are usable one by one. The first version may be a list two departments maintain together, the second the same list with an interface. That is slower than one grand launch, and it has an advantage that outweighs this: after every stage you see whether the assumption from the strategy holds, and you can change course while that is still cheap.
Process design covers what happens around the software. Who maintains the content, who answers enquiries, who decides on an exception. A platform without those answers runs technically and stands still anyway.
What is included, what is not
I take on strategy, design and implementation together, so nothing is lost between the stages. When a project grows beyond one person I bring someone in; responsibility for the result stays with me.
Operations are not included. I hand over a platform that you or your host run on, and I take no on-call duty. Nor do I do the marketing a platform needs so that the first side turns up at all. And if the strategy shows that there is no second side, I say so instead of building a platform for nobody to stand on.
What you get
From one source
Strategy, design and build without losses in handover between providers.
Open standards
Proven open source components instead of dependencies that get expensive later.
Built to maintain
An architecture someone else can still develop further in five years.
Usable in stages
Every stage stands on its own, no all-or-nothing at the end of the project.
Process
- 1
Strategy
Clarify the ecosystem, the actors and the value proposition.
- 2
Design
Shape processes, incentives and stakeholder architecture.
- 3
Concept
Translate the platform concept technically.
- 4
Build
Development, process design, going live.
What this costs
Billed by person-day, as a senior consultant. I will tell you the day rate in our first conversation, together with an estimate of how many days your project needs. Both binding, before you decide.
Small pieces of work I bill at a fixed price where the scope can be drawn clearly. I will tell you which of the two comes out cheaper.
Related services
Content management systems
WordPress or Drupal, which system fits your project.
Card applications
Map applications on OpenStreetMap, PostGIS and Mapbox GL.
Collaboration solutions
Nextcloud and Matrix on your own infrastructure.
Knowledge and information systems
Wiki.js, DokuWiki, XWiki, MediaWiki or Nextcloud Collectives.
First the prototype, then the platform
While requirements are still moving, a prototype is the cheaper route to clarity, and it arrives in days, not months.
