In the book ” The Cold Start Problem ” Andrew Chen shares his first-hand experience and insights on :
- How to build and scale Networked Products?
- How to scale leveraging the power of Atomic Networks?
He shares that there are two parts of Networked Products. There is a Hard part of the Network and an Easy part of the Network.
e.g.:
- YouTube is a network of Content creators and Content Consumers. Content Creators do the hard part in the Network and consumers are the easy part. The Product Managers, responsible for growth need to have contributors and content creators so that the consumption is increasing. Product Managers must think hard and strategize to acquire more content creators so that viewers are attracted to YouTube.
- Amazon is a Marketplace network of Sellers and Buyers. There must be the right balance of Buyers and sellers on the network for each location. In the case of Amazon, Sellers are the hard part of the network and do most of the job in the network.
- Uber is a Network of Riders and Drivers. If there is the right balance of drivers and riders in each location, then the network effects kick in. The expected Arrival of the Cab and Availability of the Cab depends on the no. of Drivers in each location. In the case of Uber, the drivers are doing most of the hard work and it is the hard part of the network to solve for product managers. Product Management at Uber focuses hard on acquiring drivers and preventing churn so that the network is balanced and there is growth for all the local networks of Drivers and Riders.
- In India, Dunzo is a Network of Delivery Partners and Users. Delivery Partners are the Hard part in the case of Dunzo and its users are the easy part. These Days, when you use Dunzo, sometimes it says Delivery Partner is not available and it says that we are not serving in your location due to unavailability of Delivery partners. These are all signs of imbalance in the Network. Product Managers must maintain a healthy balance of both the Hard Part and Easy part for the Network effects to work and grow the product. If the Delivery Partners are not available, then users will also churn to Swiggy Genie.
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Andrew also shares insights on Networked Products like Slack, Workplace apps like Workday in the B2B space. The Managers who persuade their staff to use your software are the hard part of the network products in the B2B space.
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