An ideology-free design toolkit for digital ecosystem design
CC4.0 BY-SA, Ville Eloranta, Aalto University (IDBM)
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NOTE: The tookit is largely based on and inspired by Simone Cicero's Platform Design Toolkit (CC4.0 BY-SA). Changes and additions to Cicero’s work:
- Canvas 1: Simplifications and generalizations
- Canvas 2: New contribution inspired by Cicero
- Canvas 3: Simplifications and generalizations
- Canvas 4: New contribution
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*** Want to do ecosystem design without being dictated by Silicon Valley people or blockchain enthusiasts? Here is a toolkit for you! ***
This toolkit enables you to design your ecosystem with an open mind. It does not force you to follow "Silicon Valley mantras" or "ideologically inclined decentralization paths". Also, using the tool may reveal that you don’t need an ecosystem approach at all in your case! The toolkit keeps your head cool in the ecosystem/platform/DLT bingo!
The kit is based on the following principles: • Ecosystem designer designs for orchestrating collective action. • Ecosystem allows new solutions to emerge through the reallocation of existing resources and capabilities in a business network. • Ecosystem designer must identify how ecosystem interactions can be facilitated and steered to desirable directions.
The toolkit focuses specifically on
- mapping the ecosystem's members and roles,
- creating the ecosystem's member profiles,
- identifying the members' motivations to collaborate, and
- defining the ecosystem’s governance model.
Originally, the toolkit was made to support blockchain (and other DLT-based) projects. Among crypto-enthusiasts, there were a lot of ideological debates on how the next- level digital economy should be organized. While I found such ideological debates extremely interesting, I did not want people’s opinions to dictate my ecosystem designs in uncontrolled ways. I wanted to stay unbiased when designing, at least when it comes to the tools I use. So I took Simone Cicero’s wonderful Platform Development Toolkit, simplified it a bit, and edited it to have a bit more general approach. I also added special components related to ecosystem governance design. And what is the best part? All this is tried and tested in dozens of projects!