How to measure impact in platform product management: Teresa Wang (Head of Product, Bupa)

In this episode of The Product Experience, host Randy Silver speaks with Teresa Huang — Head of Product for Enablement at global health‑insurer Bupa — about the often‑overlooked world of platform product management. They explore why building internal platforms is fundamentally different and often more challenging than building user‑facing products, how to measure the value of platform work, and practical strategies for gaining stakeholder alignment, driving platform adoption and demonstrating business impact. 

Chapters

0:00 – Why “efficiency” alone no longer cuts it — measuring platform impact in business terms
1:02 – Teresa’s background: from business analyst to head of product in health insurance
6:20 – What we mean by “platform product management” — internal tools vs marketplace vs public‑API platforms
7:44 – Why you need to “hop two steps”: address developer needs and end-customer value
10:24 – Types of platforms: internal APIs, marketplace ecosystems, public‑facing platforms (e.g. like Shopify)
10:55 – Reframing platform work: building business cases instead of chasing “efficiency” metrics
13:16 – Linking platform initiatives to core business goals and joint OKRs
15:47 – The importance of visualisation — using prototypes and role‑plays to communicate platform value
20:57 – Internal showcases: keeping stakeholders engaged with real‑world scenarios
23:28 – Success metrics for platforms: adoption, usage, reliability, ecosystem growth
26:00 – Retiring legacy services: deciding when low-use tools should be decommissioned
28:55 – From cost centre to enabler: shifting the narrative to show value creation
31:06 – Emphasising “value unlocked” over “features deployed”
34:02 – What it takes to succeed in platform PM: mindset, curiosity, empathy, leadership

Key takeaways 
— Platform product management requires two-level thinking. You must design for the “user” (often developers or internal teams) and understand how their work affects the ultimate end‑customer and business outcomes.
— Efficiency alone does not justify investment. Internal metrics like faster dev velocity rarely carry weight at the executive level — you need to link platform work to business impact like retention, NPS, speed to market or reduced support costs.
— Use a common, business-oriented language. Translate APIs and services into business value: what you’ve “unlocked,” who benefits, and how it moves core business metrics.
— Visual prototypes and role-play demonstrations work. Executives and non‑technical stakeholders often respond much better to visual customer‑scenario demos than to code or console outputs.
— Measure adoption, health, and ecosystem growth. Track usage, error rates, call frequency, number of teams/units onboarded — and use that to drive decisions about future investment or decommissioning.
— Treat platform services like products. That means applying product‑thinking: interview your users (internal teams or developers), iterate based on real problems, measure success, even when the output isn’t a user-facing UI.
— Communicate value — don’t just ship features. Build a “value unlocked” mindset: deployment is just the beginning. The real work is showing the effect on business metrics, third-party teams, or customer experience.
— Platform PM demands leadership, not just technical skill. Influence, empathy and clarity matter more than coding — enabling teams to adopt and adapt your platform is a leadership challenge.