Product Ecosystem: Entering the World of Interactions
Introduction
The Ecosystem is a concept that we have heard of many times. Whether you are a nature enthusiast or a Startup lover, you have probably come across the idea of a natural ecosystem or entrepreneurial Ecosystem at least once. In this article, we focus on the business and product Ecosystem. In a simple definition, an Ecosystem consists of members — a set of different members that interact with each other to create value. And by value, I mean purposeful and sustainable value.
Members can be an organization, individuals, government body, or even a set of tools. But the question that arises here is what will be the role of the product manager in the design, definition, and management of the Ecosystem? Why should the product Ecosystem be important to the product manager?
Ecosystem:
“A set of different members that interact with each other to create purposeful and sustainable value.”
The Importance of the Ecosystem
If you consider successful products or businesses from a higher perspective, you realize that they were never able to achieve their key results on their own, without any partnership. Instead, a set of people, commercial and non-commercial partners, tools, and organizations came to their aid, interacted with them, received services from them, delivered services to them, and formed a living and dynamic Ecosystem. An Ecosystem that has led to the creation of purposeful and sustainable value.
Ecosystem Member Types
Many scenarios have been proposed about how to define the member types of an Ecosystem. From excellent academic articles to the innovation agencies’ outputs around the world, there are many useful guides that help businesses and product people to design and determine their Ecosystem. One of these useful guides is the one presented by Systems Innovation. According to the Systems Innovation Ecosystem Mapping guide, an Ecosystem consists of the following member types:
Note that these are suggested members of an Ecosystem. Depending on the industry, business, and circumstances that you are experiencing, other options of people and organizations can be considered as members of your ecosystem. Members that can act as actors in your Ecosystem. Here you need to analyze your requirements and opportunities and decide which organizations and people can accelerate your value creation flow and put them on the map.
Here the vital fact that you need to consider is that only designing and determining your Ecosystem doesn’t create a sustainable value for your business and product. This is just the starting point of a long journey for you as a product person. Determining the actors of the product ecosystem will help you make important changes in your business model, commercial and non-commercial partners, channels, and everything else that is required in a sustainable business model. After that, the business needs to inspect and adapt issues in its Ecosystem to ensure the quality of the value creation process and members’ experiences in every Ecosystem stage.
Good Luck! | Aidin Ziapour
