Empty black podium on dark background. Representing Platforms

There are multiple definitions of ‘Platform’ out there.
Mine, for the sake of this editorial, is a ‘consolidation of experiences with a unified interface towards the user’.
It’s a loose definition, I’m aware, but bear with me.

How we got here: The fragmentation of interfaces as a value proposition.

In the last couple of years, we have experienced, especially in the technological world, an increased fragmentation of interfaces, usually as a by-product of a unique value proposition.
Think for instance of charging devices for low voltage appliances. If you take the time, you probably can count at least 5 different cables and corresponding adapters. USB C for your laptop, lightning cable for your phone, HDMI for your TV, Microusb for your camera, a unique Philips plug for your vanity product, that custom polarized plug for that home device, and the list continues.
There are few reasons why this is happening. Assuming good faith, you can argue it is due to the enhanced protocol specifications that each manufacturer bakes into an otherwise generic standard, or, assuming less good intention, a basic vendor lockdown strategy.
Things don’t look brighter in the software world, either.

Think about the last time you used a mobile operative system that is not your usual one. How long did it take to change that setting? How confusing were some ‘custom gestures’ to achieve a very obvious task? How confused were you while realizing that the weird ‘speaker’ icon turned out to be a mute button?
Differentiation is part of the product experience. It’s at the core of their value proposition.
All this to say that there are natural market dynamics leading to fragmentation, as it is a key component of product shaping. Trying to avoid it in the first place is honestly futile, but it doesn’t mean that the final user experience has to be as fragmented as the sum of their products.

What we should be focusing on: some examples of platforms that I’d like to use.

3 verticals in need of a platform.

Personal health

Today your personal health data is fragmented across multiple vendors, including your doctor.
A personal health platform will consolidate all your personal health records. It will include your medical information, including all the images and reports of all the tests and consultations that you have taken, your prescription, and so for. Additional screening like allergies, dna, food intolerance will also be included.
Your fitness data (collected by your smartwatch and scale) will be part of the platform, including your sleeping routine, your energy needs throughout the day, information about your environment, like the the surrounding light and air exposure, and so forth.
Additional information should be inferred regarding your diet. Integrated credit card and supermarket receipt processing will allow the software to have a good understanding of the food and beverage you consume.
Finally, recurrent testing of your body fluids (yes, urine and sweat) should add additional information about your current stress level, mood, brain secretions, and level of intoxication.
Data is fully integrated, and portable. Your doctor can visualize your record, including all of the above information, as soon as you decide to share those information with them.
Additional applications (like digital personal trainers) can be built on top of this platform.

Companies more likely to build this platform:

  • Apple, by slowly expanding to all the vertical listed
  • Amazon, by entering the space first through prescription and health related services (assurances)

Runnerup:

  • An apparel/retail (lifestyle) company pivoting into health (Nike, Lululemon).
  • An hardware fitness company pivoting into more complex software experiences (Peloton)

The looser:

  • Public health: could have won this space earlier on, but complexity and lack of digital literacy made them the likely loser in the race to this platform.

Energy Management

This is a tricky one and personally close to my heart. I spent countless hours thinking about this.
I’m not talking about the latest IoT Led lights or the latest smart meter that can tell you how much you have consumed yesterday.
I’m talking about a fully integrated energy management platform.
From heating to electricity, from the power consumption management of your oven, to the negotiation with your local microgrid.
If you are one of those people that have dip their feet in solar, batteries, smart heating, etc, you probably know how clanky the entire experience is. Each manufacturer has their own software, often their own protocall (costing in a lot of adapters for interconnectivity), their own cloud, and of course their own walled garden.
Even the big names like Amazon, Apple and Google, don’t offer a full coverage of the ecosystem. What works on one platform doesn’t in the other.
Furthermore, we are so much in the early stage of platformizing energy management that we think that awareness is the goal. So we end up presenting to the user a lot of information, but with little actionability.
An energy management platform should forecast, predict, and act. Reinforcement learning will optimize each instance of the platform (at household level) to learn the specific patterns.
From a user perspective, a smart energy management system should focus on 2 main things: ease of use and behavioural shifting.
Ease of use, because the ‘path of least resistance’ is a real thing, and humans are lazy, even if turning off that light bulb might save the planet.
Behavioural shifting because our brain is very simple, trigger-reward condition is a real thing.
The economic opportunity is incredible. A well done energy management platform is ubiquitous, allowing a rethinking of the entire energy distribution system. From overprovisioned centralized systems, to decentralized local grids.

Companies more likely to build this platform:

  • Tesla, has already some components of the systems (batteries, solar, inverter) and most likely to enter the HVAC
  • Google, the original Nest vision was very close to this, now diluted by the IoT consumer product experiences. They lost momentum but still have good opportunities with some of their Alphabet and Google Venture investments (ie.: Dandelion energy)

Runnerup:

  • Oil companies trying to enter the energy market without the 100 years legacy: Shell and BP are the first in line with investments in batteries, inverters and smart meters.

The looser:

  • Energy companies, the real ‘dinosaurs in the room’. For over a century, they claimed this was a boring, low margin sector and instead of reinventing themselves they just got victim of their own monopoly. The innovator’s dilemma in plain sight.

Personal Finances

I moved to a few countries over the last decade, and I can assure that the activity that I spent the most time on as a byproduct of those moves is personal finance management. From moving money across currencies, adjusting taxation, to learning new regulation, I haven’t been able to find a single country that does this right.
Now, you don’t need to be a globetrotter to experience similar hurdles.
A personal finance platform should integrate all your bank accounts, credit cards accounts, etc. Consolidate all your assets in one place for a global view of your wealth.
Should allow us to interact with different systems in a cohesive way, for instance buy and sell stocks with different brokers though the same interface.
The platform should aid, if not autocomplete, tax returns based on your status, possibly automatically, pulled by your travel website and your local registration portal.
There are plenty of additional financial services that can be built on top, from automatic investments, to more mundane saving habit experiences, but the core value should come first. All of your finances in one place.

Companies more likely to build this platform:

  • Stripe: on of the company, in general, with the best platform mindset. I don’t think they are too far, just they haven’t articulated their vision for Personal finances.
  • New financial institutions: coming out of the bank 2.0 waves there are quite few good players, but none of them are taking an holistic approach (ie.: they are great at one thing, and poor at all the rest)

Runner up:

  • Crypto platforms: they have the power users, they need to work harder on integrations and payment processing.

The looser:

  • Traditional financial institutions: too entrenched, operating with high costs, complex org structure and poor customer service. Barely made to the ‘mobile first’ era, they will not survive another 10 years of technological innovation in the consumer space.

Bridging back to reality

As exciting as it is to talk about what ‘could be’, it’s important to realize there are multiple reasons why we are ‘not there yet’.
Platformization excises, especially in the sectors like the one described above requires a policy and legal ecosystems not always available.
For instance, today, in many countries you cannot share energy with your neighbor without going through an energy company (even if you own the complete infrastructure).
Data portability is still far from being an easy to use experience, let alone being something that can be automated into a platform for sharing personal health data.
And the list of potential blockers continues.
That said, the needs are so obvious, that it’s just a matter of time.
And more platforms to come as well, from personal preferences and taste across multiple entraining platform to a unify transportation system across multiple providers and nations.

If you are equally excited about platforms or you are building one yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out at info@firstnamelastname.com

Copyright © 2015– Nicola Bortignon