How would you manage building a platform product that serves both internal teams and external customers?
Model answer
Model answerPlatform products fail when they try to serve everyone equally. I'd establish clear priority rules upfront: external customers have primacy; internal teams are secondary users. The governance challenge is preventing internal teams from treating the platform as a captive audience. I'd set a rule: any feature built for internal use only must be justified by external customer impact or cost savings that fund external features.
Framework · Platform Strategy
- PPriority hierarchy
Establish who comes first when needs conflict — and communicate it - GGovernance model
Who approves features? How are trade-offs escalated? - IInternal vs external
Internal teams are not customers — don't let them act like it - MMetrics split
Track external and internal metrics separately — conflation hides problems
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