Product Management Insights: Building Mid‑Platform Products, Past Experiences, and Future Design

During the JD Retail Technology & Data Mid‑Platform "Tech Talk" series, Liu Guangyue, head of the Marketing Transaction Platform, emphasized that product managers must view problems from a higher, "God‑eye" perspective, designing products within an ecosystem.

Now – Building Mid‑Platform Products: Liu explained that the concept of a mid‑platform originated from the U.S. military’s command structure, aiming to create a flexible, self‑growing ecosystem. JD’s mid‑platform strategy focuses on component‑based e‑commerce services, shared and co‑built with front‑end teams, using workflow and rule engines to enable seamless online‑offline transaction capabilities.

She highlighted the need to consider both internal requirements and future external openness to maximize the platform’s value.

Past – Learning from Social Product Experience: Liu reflected on her work with large‑scale social products such as Mobile Feixin, QQ Space, and Mobile QQ, noting challenges when new services conflicted with existing telecom offerings. She stressed that the core of social products lies in relationship‑based interaction and that product managers must anticipate market shifts, especially as platforms like WeChat evolve.

After joining JD, she shifted focus to B2B solutions, exemplified by the JD WanJia mid‑platform that digitizes offline merchants, now serving hundreds of thousands of stores.

Future – Strategic Product Design: Liu advocated for long‑term, strategic thinking, urging product managers to align product design with financial outcomes, company strategy, and organizational models. She introduced three guiding concepts: “Qu‑Shi” (seizing trends), “Ming‑Dao” (choosing the right development path), and “You‑Shu” (continuous optimization and rapid iteration).

The talk concluded that understanding past lessons, current ecosystem building, and future strategic alignment are essential for product managers to create commercially valuable, sustainable products.