5 Levels of Building a Successful Open Platform & Ecosystem
- Open the source code to break down the “black box” barriers across teams and companies.
- Publish design documents, rules, and tests to scale distribution and innovation velocity while minimizing fragmentation by opening for extension but closing for modification.
- Release API/SDK, and developer guides to speed up and 10x the application innovation by decoupling applications from the platform.
- Provide development, testing, CI/CD tools, frameworks, and a distribution marketplace to increase developer productivity and enable a faster cycle of updates and innovation for both sides.
These used to be the gold standard. But now, what could be the level 5 in the age of “Software 2.0”?
Knowing the “Unknown Unknown”
During my “working holidays” between October and December, I talked to 15 Android device makers across Europe, Japan, Taiwan, China, and the US about how to improve their software development productivity while enhancing quality. These conversations were valuable, not just for validating our 2025 roadmap, hypotheses, unknowns, and priorities, but also for getting to know their engineers & leads in person and understanding their top concerns. Even though the trips took a few weeks off from my vacation, building a better understanding & trust is priceless. Beside, this is the better way to build innovative and helpful solutions. Whoever delegates such efforts to middlemen is either building “me too” solutions or has way too much time and resources.
The Master Plan
One promise I’m uncomfortably excited about is to scrape the surface of a GenAI-augmented development workflow (GenAI DevFlow). Because now we can experiment a way out by the MVP of the “Google Doc” for Android device developers. There’s only one caveat: it’s still early and very ambiguous. But I’m confident that together we have a shot at making a dent in the GenAI DevFlow universe. Allow me to tell you how.
- Landing high-value device development skills within the DevFlow iteratively & grounded by feedback from actual production developers.
- Making the baseline solution accessible, easy to use, and affordable to the device makers who choose to play.
- Enabling device makers to add their own intelligence to solve their unique problems within their own private clouds.