A great product will grow it’s own ecosystem. In it’s own ecosystem, it will find purpose (self-actualize) and thrive. In each ecosystem, there are ecological features help keep the system thriving. These features help acquire new users, keep current users engaged, and minimize losing users to competing ecosystems. These features may be tools, transaction systems, reference documents. These features bend the world in favor of the products and encourage a flow of nutrients to keep the ecosystem flourishing. These nutrients maybe in the form of content (text, images, videos, apps), money, social capital (reviews, reputation).
Below is a list of 10 products with thriving ecosystem and some of their ecological features. As you go over each product, think about what kind of nutrient each ecological feature is providing.
1. iPhone and iPad
Ecological features: app store, iOS Human Interface Guidelines, XCode, testflight
2. Live Nation
Ecological features: ticket transfer, ticket resale, concert promotions.
3. Uber
Ecological features: bill split, promo code system, driver on boarding
4. Udemy
Ecological features: bulk upload, course announcements, affiliate tools
5. Facebook
Ecological features: post an update (text, picture, video), messenger SDK, peer to peer payment
6. Yelp
Ecological features: Yelp Elite portal, events, autoshare on Facebook
“Community is the antithesis of growth hacking.” – Nish Nadaraja, Founder of the Yelp Elite program
7. Amazon
Ecological features: Self publishing, Kindle, affiliate program
8. Getaround
Ecological features: carkit, promo credits,instant rentals
9. Wordpress
Ecological features: footer watermark, premium theme store, plug-in store
10. Google
Ecological features: gmail,google hangouts, forms
All of the products in this list didn’t always have an ecosystem. Many companies try to build ecosystem features prematurely and fail. So how does a product successfully grow ecosystem features? The Pyrami product framework explains this growth path. Read about it here.
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