Unfinished Products

In defining unfinished products strategies, companies should consider where their strengths are, and in which directions they want to develop their growth opportunities.

To successfully create or participating in ecosystems, the critical enabler for unfinished products is the ability of opening APIs and technical specifications. Hence for a successful unfinished products strategy is important to consolidate the API strategy.

In the industry there is always a good debate on what API means and how simple or difficult is to implement a valid API strategy. Where to starts and how to succeed. Certainly, API is an overloaded term and different people give them different connotations. Companies should look at API beyond the pure technological aspect of enabling system-to-system interactions.

APIs are sometimes perceived only as an integration or enhancement pattern. Given the simplicity to implement API Styles (REST, GraphQL or gRPC), APIs can be used [and indeed are frequently used] to serialize data, and to create a continuum between systems and functions [e.g. exposing legacy system capabilities to address new use cases].

Interpreting APIs with this lens of the supply-side needs [gathering the required resources] and the composition of processes [workflow integration], is not enough to explore a successful unfinished products strategy. Experience-driven smart devices require APIs to enable companies and the entire ecosystem to updates the products even after the customer acquired them.

The intent of the unfinished products strategy compass is to map the different value APIs could deliver. The unfinished products strategy compass should help companies design their journey to move from their current API capabilities to the ones that strategically support unfinished products.

The compass uses two dimensions: digitized and digital. Digitized is the opportunity for organization to improve the enterprise operations backbone, while digital is the opportunity to create new sustainable business models _[1]. The operational excellence that digitization drives, lead usually to increase margins; rotating to digital, companies create new revenue streams; combining flavors of digitization and digital companies scale their core and achieve higher sales in the up-selling and cross-selling scenarios.

The compass spells out which strategic capabilities and technology companies need to implement to formulate their unfinished products story. The compass answers questions as which directions companies can direct themselves to digitize and digitize their business. The compass brings live the building blocks (e.g. APIs design principles, archetypes and technologies) to outline the successful unfinished product strategies.

[1] Dr Jeanne Ross [MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)] podcast for Avanade “Ready by Design – Episode 2: Digitized vs. Digital” https://www.avanade.com/en/thinking/research-and-insights/avanade-presents/digitized-natives

[2] MASA – Mesh App and Service Architecture – https://www.gartner.com/en/webinars/3873994/create-a-roadmap-to-architect-a-digital-business-technology-plat

[3] SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud – https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/SMAC-social-mobile-analytics-and-cloud