Chapter 6 - Platform Governance

Abstract

This chapter provides a foundation for understanding platform governance, beginning with its purpose and importance. It then explains the three dimensions of platform governance. The first is how the authority and responsibility for platform and app decisions are divvied up among app developers and a platform owner (decision rights). The second includes four mechanisms that a platform owner can mix-and-match to ensure goal convergence and coordination with app developers: gatekeeping, metrics, process control, and relational control (control). The third dimension is five platform pricing policies. The text finally explains how the three dimensions of governance, decision rights, control, and pricing, can be aligned with a platform’s architecture, its business model, and its lifecycle stage. Aiming for five simple rules basics can help design an effective but minimalist platform control system: simple, transparent, realistic, value-based, and fair.