Med flera användare i fokus - En studie av vanliga utmaningar och framgångsrika tillvägagångssätt vid användarcentrerad design i agilt utvecklande av IT-baserade flersidiga plattformar

Sammanfattning: Multisided platforms are trending amongst business models of startups and have achieved great attention through companies such as Airbnb. There are strong economic incentives for growing large platforms due to network effects and there is also a tendency for lagging platforms to be extinguished in hard competition to become the leading business that attracts all users. Due to these challenges high pressure do develop quickly in accordance with customer preferences is forced upon any venture trying to grow a multisided platform business. In an era of software and fast moving trends agile has been praised by many as a set of methods for accomplishing fast progress while others promote software development based on more human centered values instead. In the midst of agile and user-centered design merged and developing theories such as agile user-centered design can be found. These theories try to combine methods that infer some challenges as well as opportunities. Earlier studies show that agile user-centered design can lead to growth when applied in IT-companies but it is not as well documented how this growth occurs. How such growth occur due to agile user-centered development i multisided platforms is what this study explores. The thesis suggests seven areas from where success is drawn within agile user-centered development on IT-based multisided platforms. These include deep knowledge of human needs and user values, effective categorization of user-groups and a strong connection with the company vision and purpose. They also include well thought through organizational structures and resource management. Finally it points out the need for efficient communication channels for capturing feedback. From a management perspective this thesis presents a few areas of importance for successful agile user-centered design for IT-based multisided platforms from which managers and leaders can gather insight to make more strategic decisions.