This course is part of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation track.
Introduction to Winning with Digital Platforms

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Winning with Digital Platforms

$1,850
Next 5-week session starts August 13th
Explore digital platforms' unique properties, opportunities, and risks, and develop scalable strategies that drive growth and deliver a competitive advantage.
5
weeks
6-7
hours per week
5
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Define what platforms are and how they create and capture value
Understand network effects and how to leverage them to achieve growth
Discover how to launch, scale, and maintain a successful platform business
Overcome operational challenges associated with developing, overseeing, or interacting with a platform business
Explore strategies for transitioning a product or service into a platform
Build offensive and defensive plans to effectively develop or compete against platform companies

Who Will Benefit

Explore platforms’ associated opportunities and risks to inform your organization’s strategic planning and new business development.
"The course’s content and teaching method through case studies and practical examples was remarkable."
Vishal Vyas
Assistant Vice President at TTK Healthcare Limited
Understand the platform business landscape to work more effectively with platforms or respond to new opportunities in your industry.
"HBS Online courses are excellent for anyone who wishes to learn more about a particular subject area or further develop their career."
Corina Cristea Lavoie
Corporate Services Manager at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Learn how to launch and scale a successful platform business and compete against others in the same space.
"This was an excellent course with concepts that were immediately applicable to my consulting business."
Kerri Roche
Owner and Strategic Planner, Sift Strategic Planning at Sift Strategic Planning
Master of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: Completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of entrepreneurship and innovation with a Certificate of Specialization

Earn by: Completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

5 Modules, 30-35 Hours
Download full syllabus
6
hrs
Module 1

Platform Fundamentals

Explore what platforms are, how they create and capture value for users, and the primary mechanisms that allow them to scale.

Highlights

How Picabuu Started
Keeping High Performance Scores at Ze
Mingyue Zhu (ZBJ)
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. What Is a Platform?
  2. Value Creation and Capture
  3. Growth Factors

Featured Exercise

  • Articulate dynamic pricing’s benefits and drawbacks
  • Define the most important characteristics of economies of scale
  • Determine how platforms build trust into their systems
  • Advise a startup platform, Picabuu, on how it can capture value and anticipate challenges
  • Module 1 Capstone and Review
6
hrs
Module 2

Scaling and Sustaining a Platform (Part 1)

Differentiate types of network effects and apply strategies a platform can use to strengthen them. Recognize and examine the characteristics of multi-homing and network clusters and assess new markets based on network shape.

Highlights

Positives of Multi-homing
Picabuu and Clustering
Multihoming: Incumbents vs New Entrants
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Network Effects
  2. Multi-Homing
  3. Network Clustering

Featured Exercises

  • Determine how companies can strengthen direct network effects
  • Articulate ways network structure can influence a platform’s ability to scale or defend itself against competitors
  • Consider how a platform might increase profitability by changing its network clustering structures
  • Advise a startup platform, Picabuu, on how it might generate strong network effects to scale
  • Module Capstone: Picabuu
6
hrs
Module 3

Scaling and Sustaining a Platform (Part 2)

Understand the chicken-or-egg problem and disintermediation and develop strategies for overcoming them, and summarize how network bridging can increase a platform’s value.

Highlights

Zhima Credit
When to Network Bridge
Chicken-or-Egg and Growth at Picabuu
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Chicken-or-Egg Problem
  2. Disintermediation
  3. Network Bridging

Featured Exercises

  • Describe ways platforms can reduce users’ adoption costs
  • Determine how a firm can overcome its chicken-or-egg problem
  • Consider how to adapt business models as new marketplace challenges arise
  • Define the factors platforms must consider when entering adjacent markets
  • Propose an action plan for a startup platform, Picabuu, to address a network property of your choice
  • Module Review and Capstone
7
hrs
Module 4

Transforming into a Platform Firm

Explain the benefits of transitioning a product or service into a platform, determine the business scenarios best suited for the change, and describe common operational challenges traditional firms face when transitioning to a platform model.

Highlights

New Ways of Creating Value
Lessons Learned
Value Creation at Zé
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Shifts in Operating Models
  2. Navigating Transition
  3. Is Transitioning to a Platform Right for You?

Featured Exercises

  • Articulate the benefits of transitioning a product or service into a platform
  • Detect and anticipate how to manage conflicts in business models
  • Advise a startup platform, Picabuu, on how it might acquire new customers
  • Sketch an idea for a platform that a company you’re familiar with might launch and determine the transition’s feasibility and obstacles
  • Module Review and Capstone
5
hrs
Module 5

Working with Platforms

Explain why traditional companies must learn how to work with platform businesses to thrive and the associated benefits and risks. Explore factors that make it more likely for a platform to encroach on your business and defense strategies to combat it and why all organizations must be aware of political trends and public sentiment surrounding competition and fair business practices.

Highlights

How 3rd Party Sellers Create Value
Amazon’s Encroachment
Open and Closed Platforms
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Coopetition: The Complementor-Competitor Dynamic
  2. Risks
  3. Defensive Strategies
  4. Navigating Regulations

Featured Exercise

  • Explain the benefits and risks of partnering with platform companies
  • Evaluate the optimal means of gathering data
  • Explore defensive strategies companies can use to ward off platform encroachment
  • Consider the benefits of open versus closed platform models
  • Advise a startup platform, Picabuu, on the top two pieces of advice to prioritize as it prepares to launch
  • Module Review and Capstone
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Our Difference

Winning with Digital Platforms is for those who want to launch, scale, maintain, or work with a successful platform business. You’ll explore platforms’ unique properties, opportunities, and risks and learn how to develop effective strategies that deliver a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by HBS faculty and industry-leading experts from companies like EbonyLife Group, Bloomberg L.P., Fasten, Zé Delivery, Picabuu, X Fire Paintball & Airsoft, and Zhubajie (ZBJ).
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by HBS faculty and industry-leading experts from companies like EbonyLife Group, Bloomberg L.P., Fasten, Zé Delivery, Picabuu, X Fire Paintball & Airsoft, and Zhubajie (ZBJ).

About the Professor

Feng Zhu
Winning with Digital Platforms

MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration
“Some of the largest, most valued companies today are platforms, and you need to know why they’re so successful and how to work with them to stay competitive.”

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Aug
13
5 Weeks  $1,850 + applicable international taxes
Payment deadline August 7
View weekly calendar
Enroll Now
Starting
Oct
08
5 Weeks  $1,850 + applicable international taxes
Payment deadline October 2
View weekly calendar
Enroll Now
  • No documentation required

All learners must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

76%
found HBS Online to be more impactful than other online business programs
Understanding what a platform is and why someone would use one is crucial. The dynamics of consumption are important to consider. This course helps you see the world in a new way. The language it uses is beneficial not only in the tech world but in innovation.
Fulgence-Guy Yango
Principal Designer, Protah Ideation: Performance Design & Strategy at Protah Ideation
This course delivered more value to me than I expected. It had high-quality information that applies to what I do.
Sergio Carbone
President of SC Carbone, Inc.
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Winning with Digital Platforms FAQs

Participants in Winning with Digital Platforms are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This means completing each course module and fully answering questions posed therein by the required deadline. This course also features recommended weekly deadlines to help ensure your cohort proceeds through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect participation in the social learning elements of the course by offering feedback on others’ reflections and contributing to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Winning with Digital Platforms. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

The capstone activity involves applying the course concepts to a real-life startup platform company, Picabuu. Each module will culminate in a series of questions you’ll be asked to answer as if you were advising Picabuu on its platform strategy and challenges. Note, however, that no coursework you complete will actually be provided to the company.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

Harvard Business School Online

Certificate in Winning with Digital Platforms

[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Winning with Digital Platforms
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: "Complete"
Activities and Societies: Leave blank
Description:

Winning with Digital Platforms is a 5-week, 30-35 hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Winning with Digital Platforms is designed for those who want to launch, scale, maintain, or work with a successful platform business. Participants explore platforms’ unique properties, opportunities, and risks and learn how to develop scalable strategies that deliver a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

 

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