Subject: Clarifying product terminology because it is confusing (aka banning the use of Product)

Situation:

  • We use the word "product" a lot
  • e.g. even this piece of work is called "Product Plan"

Complication:

  • Product can mean several different things. For example, it can mean "something we offer to others to buy or use" e.g. on our website we have a "Products" section with a "CKAN Product". Or it can mean
    • Even in this external use there can issues. For example, let's say we have "CKAN" on our website under Products. However, what that is really is a data portal solution powered by CKAN!
  • This causes confusion and therefore problems
    • For example, I have struggled in writing this piece because of vacillation and confusion between "product" as "external offers to the world" e.g. "Turnkey Hosted Open Data Portal Product" and "internal platform/tool that we work on" as in "CKAN multitenant Product".
    • This confusion is made worse in some ways because the different meanings often have some overlap e.g. we say things like "Data Portal SaaS" Product which actually runs together the internal platform (a SaaS system) with what the client gets ie. a hosted polished turnkey portal.

Hypothesis tree

  • Car manufacturing metaphor: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_platform
    • Platform: an internal set of common components for constructing a variety of models: "A car platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components, over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of cars, often from different, but somewhat related, marques."
      • However, platform is used a lot in software including for a product e.g. windows is a platform etc. So we use stack instead
    • Model: The model or product line e.g. RAV4, Model 3
    • Variant: Color, trim, small custom features e.g. sunroof, radio etc. eg. blue RAV4 with sports mode
  • A platform is a group of technologies that are used as a base upon which other applications, processes or technologies are developed. – https://www.techopedia.com/definition/3411/platform-computing
  • https://smartface.io/platform-vs-framework-difference/ "a framework is defined as “an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software. A software framework provides a standard way to build and deploy applications."

We use stacks to build products for clients.

Products are something people can buy.

Stacks are something we (or others) use to build a product.

🚩 sometimes our stack becomes the product or product-like e.g. CKAN is both a stack (platform) to build a data portal and could be a product in its own right – though strictly it would only be a product for people wanting to build a portal themselves. Most times in discussion it is mistaken for a product e.g. someone says "I want CKAN" when what they really mean is: I want a CKAN-powered data portal and the product i the data portal.

Having this distinction is important in reducing confusion both for ourselves and more importantly in communicating externally.

Customizability Spectrum: Product to Framework to Library

../Excalidraw/product-terminology-customizability-spectrum-2023-03-13.excalidraw

Notes: What is a product?

  • What terminology have we used? **✅2023-03-09. Jan 2023: Solutions and Apps?
  • What is a solution? ✅2023-03-09 A solution is an application of a Product to a problem. e.g. DataHub Open Data is DataHub for open data portals. DataHub Enterprise is DataHub for enterprise data catalogs.
    • There may also be a slightly different feature set.
  • What is a product? A Product is something you buy.
  • What is a tool? A tool is our name for an internal application/tool/product
  • Is this confusing? I personally find this confusing. At the same time just using "product" for everything is also confusing.
  • What do we do about it?
Built with DataHub LogoDataHub Cloud