🤔 Isn't this just agile?

A reader responded to the last post with a comment:

Isn't "agile" a part of product thinking too? That doesn't seem linear?

This is a good question. Agile covers a lot of ground. The Agile Manifesto states:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Typically agile focuses on fast iterations and quick feedback, which is definitely part of platform thinking. Most software methodologies focus on creating software. Platform thinking expands to include more of product development including mechanical, hardware, and integration. Much of development these days is integration of complex systems, including vast amounts of open-source software. As system complexity grows, teams need ways to deal with this complexity. Individual interactions are great and very important, but they don't scale with complexity. And perhaps the real goal of YOUR Platform is to free people from tedious repetitious work, so individuals will have more time to interact in creative ways.