Keynote at http://questforquality.eu/ Quality in an Age of Uncertainty Digital technologies have changed the way we work and live and that change is accelerating. Platforms and the platform economy are creating new ways of delivering amazing experiences and crazy new connections between customers and providers of services. Platform effects are being felt in what were un-disruptable industries hotels, transportation, food, finance. It’s beginning to feel like everyone wants to build a platform business model. Platforms have all the characteristics of a complex system. Complexity brings with it uncertainty, and we’ve never had a greater need for quality as the stakes grow increasingly higher. What the hell is a platform business model? How is it different? How are they designed? What technology triggers are driving this? and Why does it matter to quality professionals? This talk will explore these questions and more.

1. QUALITY IN AN AGE OF
UNCERTAINTY
Business Model Adventures & MindRising
gar@businessmodeladventures.com
@aspiringarc

3. things are changing fast(?)

4. BUT BEFORE WE GET THERE LET’S TALK ABOUT ME

5. creativity // problem-solving // sharing // storytelling
MINDRISING
free-range-learning platform

6. FROM
BLOCKHEADS
TO
GREYHEADS

7. video story world
past future
person
place
theme
event
idea
place
theme
event
In 2016 We set the frame and added some constraints,
pick your path, tell a story, research,
build, produce & direct

8. WE HAD SOME UNEXPECTED SURPRISES

9. British Geo Survey
Data Rendered in
Minecraft
NBB we have the
same for Ireland
British Ordnance
Survey Data
Rendered in
Minecraft
NB we have same
for Ireland
City of Toronto
Rendered in
Minecraft we are
doing for Dublin &
Limerick

10. What the hell is
going on?
Why are we here?
BUT FIRST

11. THE HYPE MACHINE HAS BROUGHT YOU TO ME
TODAY Mmmm HYPE!!

12. (A LITTLE HEALTH WARNING ON HYPE,
DON’T BELIEVE IT!)
here’s a game and the winner gets a free workshop on platforms from me! now your sitting up straight ☺
INDUSTRIAL AGE
THINKING
PLATFORM BUSINESS
MODEL
DISRUPTIVE
INNOVATION
POWER OF
NETWORKS
JTBD
CUSTOMER
NEEDS
EXPERIENCE
ECONOMY
AIRBNB
A.I.
IoT
API
ECONOMY
LEARNING
ENGINE
FACEBOOK EFFECT
CONTEXT IS KING
COMPLEXITY
BLOCKCHAIN
UNCERTAINTY
GDPR
DIGITAL TRUST
QUOTING
SMART
PEOPLE

13. “In my opinion, right now
there's way too much hype
on the technologies and not
enough attention to the real
businesses behind them.” Mark Cuban

14. LOT’S OF BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING

15. STAND-UP

16. THIS MORNING IS ALL ABOUT PLATFORM BUSINESS
MODELS, WHAT THEY ARE AND WHY THEY MATTER…

17. WE’RE ABOUT TO
START BATTLING
A WHOLE NEW
ENEMY

18. THEY’RE BIG AND THEY’RE SMALL

19. PLATFORMS HAVE
IMMENSE
POTENTIAL

20. FOR
GOOD &
FOR EVIL

21. THE WEAPONS
WE USED BEFORE
ARE USELESS
AGAINST THEM

22. “We cannot solve our
problems with the
same thinking we used
when we created
them” Albert Einstein

23. 2 WORLDS – THE KNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN

24. SANGEET CHOUDARY..SAYS -
Sangeet Choudary
Author- Platform Strategy
Platforms are
Business models
that…

25. “business models that allow
multiple sides (producers
and consumers) to interact
[…] by providing an
infrastructure that connects
them”
Sangeet Choudary
Author Platform Strategy
SANGEET CHOUDARY..SAYS -

26. LET’S STOP A MINUTE AND LOOK BACK….

27. THIS ALL STARTED BECAUSE I SAID ‘SHIT’
Let’s do
something!

28. FIRST OFF SOME
ARCHAEOLOGY

29. REMEMBER WHEN
THINGS WERE SIMPLE

30. OVER TIME THEY GOT
MORE COMPLICATED

31. AND MORE
COMPLICATED

32. AND EVEN MORE COMPLICATED

33. BUT WE HAD A MODEL THAT WORKED AND
HELPED US THINK ABOUT THINGS

34. WE BUILT SOFTWARE TO SUPPORT THE FRONTSTAGE
AND THE BACKSTAGE OF THE BUSINESS

35. BUT THINGS GOT COMPLICATED

36. THEN THE INTERNET HAPPENED

37. AFTER IGNORING, ABUSING & INVADING IT WE FINALLY
SETTLED ON THE INTERNET AND AGREED THAT IT
MATTERED

38. WE SAT BACK AND MARVELLED AT THE GOOD
AND THE GREAT Mmmmmarvelling

39. ADD TIME AND TECH….

40. WE CONTROLLED OUR ADVANTAGE CAREFULLY

41. BUT, AS WE WATCHED COMPANY BY COMPANY AND
INDUSTRY BY INDUSTRY PERISH OR SUFFER OUR
ADVANTAGE BEGAN TO VANISH

42. “Chains of habit are
too light to be felt until
they are too heavy to
be broken.”
Warren Buffet
CEO Berkshire Hathaway

43. BIG P PLATFORMS

44. “Uber, the world’s largest taxi
company, owns no vehicles.
Facebook, the world’s most popular
media owner, creates no content.
Alibaba, the most valuable retailer,
has no inventory. And Airbnb, the
world’s largest accommodation
provider, owns no real estate.
Something interesting is
happening.”
Tom Goodwin
Havas Media

45. NOW WE’RE ALL IN DANGER

46. SO WHAT’S GOING ON… FIRST SOME
DEFINITIONS FROM SMART PEOPLE

47. “business models that
allow multiple sides
(producers and
consumers) to interact
[…] by providing an
infrastructure that
connects them”
Sangeet Choudary
Author- Platform Strategy

48. “governance structures […] that
determine who can participate,
what roles they might play, how
they might interact and how
disputes get resolved” and “an
additional set of protocols or
standards […] to facilitate
connection, coordination, and
collaboration”
John Hagel
Author

49. I HAVE A THEORY WHAT (WTF) HAPPENED???
DISRUPTIVE
INNOVATION
1
AGGREGATION
EFFECTS
2
KNOWING &
CONTROL 
LEARNING &
INFLUENCE
3
ADDICTION TO
CERTAINTY
4
DECISION
DYNAMICS
5

50. 1. THEY NEVER SAW IT COMING – DISRUPTION

51. “The reason why it is so
difficult for existing firms to
capitalize on disruptive
innovations is that their
processes and their business
model that make them good at
the existing business actually
make them bad at competing
for the disruption.”
Clay Christenson
Author - Innovators Solution

52. 2. AGGREGATION EFFECTS & THE POWER OF
NETWORKS

53. “Companies that win the
user experience can
generate a virtuous cycle
where their ownership of
consumers/users attracts
suppliers which improves
the user experience”
Ben Thompson
Stratechery

54. 3. MOVING FROM KNOWING MACHINES TO
LEARNING MACHINES

55. 4. OUR CERTAINTY ADDICTION AND OUR BRAIN
Mmmm, a cup
certainty please ☺
Me too please
☺

56. “A reliable way of making
people believe in
falsehoods is frequent
repetition, because
familiarity is not easily
distinguished from truth.”
Daniel Kahneman

57. 5. DECISION DYNAMICS

58. WHY IT WORKS?

59. “platforms are
organisations that
connect the players in
a given ecosystem”
Marina Gorbis
Director Institute for the Future

60. BORN ON THE INTERNET IS DIFFERENT

61. API THINKING IS EVOLUTIONARY

62. WE MOVED FROM SYSTEMS OF CONTROL TO
NETWORKS OF MUTUAL BENEFIT
power: reputationpower: hierarchy

63. NETWORKS ARE HARD TO BUILD BUT EASY TO
DEFEND
PLATFORMS

64. EMBRACING COMPLEXITY & UNCERTAINTY
UNCERTAINTY
COMPLEXITY

65. BIG ‘P’ V small ‘p’ PLATFORMS

66. BIG P PLATFORMS

67. BUT SOMEONE ALWAYS GETS SCREWED

68. PLATFORMS HAVE SIDE-EFFECTS & EXTERNALITIES

69. “The design of “Positive
Platforms”—platforms that not
only maximize profits for their
owners but also provide
dignified and sustainable
livelihoods for those who work
on them, plus enrich society as
a whole—is one of the most
urgent tasks we are facing
today.”
Marina Gorbis
Director Institute for the Future

70. PLATFORMS IN A NUTSHELL

71. PLATFORMS INHABIT AN ECOSYSTEM

72. PLATFORMS HAVE 2+ SIDES
CONSUMERSPROVIDERS
PARTNERS

73. “Platform thinking is a
way to organize value
creation in a particular
ecosystem of
interacting entities.”
Simone Cicero
Platform Design Toolkit

74. PARTICIPATION FOR SOME IS LIKE CITIZENSHIP
THERE ARE OBLIGATIONS

75. INCENTIVES NEED TO ALIGN FOR PARTICIPANTS
TO PLAY

76. PLATFORMS LOWER TRANSACTION AND
COORDINATION COSTS (COASE LAW)
marginal cost of adding a new
customer moves to 0

77. “The law of property
determines who owns
something, but the
market determines
how it will be used.” Ronald Coase
Theory of the Firm

78. PLATFORMS ARE MADE UP OF A TRANSACTION
ENGINE AND A LEARNING ENGINE
transaction engine learning engine

79. PLATFORMS ARE CONTEXTUAL

80. NETWORKS FORM BARRIERS TO ENTRY
PLATFORMS

81. THE USUAL REMEDIES
JUST DON’T WORK,
E.G. HOW DO I
PROTECT CUSTOMERS
FROM SOMETHING
THEY LOVE?

82. WHAT NEXT?

83. TECHNOLOGY TRIGGERS

84. CHALLENGES FOR QUALITY - IT’S GOING TO GET
WORSE

85. IOT AND CONNECTED THINGS

86. A.I. SPECIALISED & GENERALISED

87. WHAT DO YOU DO IF THE SOFTWARE YOU ARE
TESTING IS LEARNING

88. SHARING ECONOMY REQUIRES PLATFORMS

89. BLOCKCHAIN

90. LOW CODE, CONSUMERISATION & SERVERLESS

91. AR/VR

92. WHAT CAN YOU DO?

93. A QUEST FOR QUALITY CRUSADERS

94. IT’S MORE THAN TESTING CODE
▪Test Ideas
▪Test Designs
▪Test Decisions

95. GET REALLY COMFORTABLE WITH UNCERTAINTY

96. SAPER VEDERE – LEARN HOW TO SEE

97. FIND TOOLS FOR SHARED UNDERSTANDING
http://platformdesigntoolkit.com/

98. gar@businessmodeladventures.com
@aspiringarc
http://ie.linkedin.com/in/garmaccriosta
www.businessmodeladventures.com
Hello, my name is Gar
and I help with

99. YOU ARE ALL QUALITY CRUSADERS