INTERFACE by apidays 2023 - API-as-a-product: The Key to a Successful API Program, Jason Harmon, Stoplight
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The document emphasizes the importance of treating APIs as products to drive business growth and adaptability. It outlines strategies for recognizing relationships, gaining executive buy-in, and enhancing acceptance criteria to foster a customer-centric mindset. Additionally, it highlights the necessity of aligning APIs with overall business models to avoid commoditization and maintain user-focused design.
INTERFACE by apidays 2023 - API-as-a-product: The Key to a Successful API Program, Jason Harmon, Stoplight
- 1. 1 Jason Harmon CTO @Stoplight.io Tips for a Successful API Program Why You Should Treat Your APIs as Products
- 3. 2 Jason Harmon Chief Technology Officer, Stoplight Engineering, Product, Security, IT Host of #APIIntersection Podcast Background: ● Previously: ○ Senior Director of Platform Architecture @Expedia Group ○ Chief Platform Officer and CTO at @Typeform ○ Head of API Design @Paypal ○ API Architect @uShip ● Co-founded Austin API Meetup ● Founding member of OpenAPI Initiative ● Founding member of RAML Working Group
- 4. 3 Stoplight.io - Collaborative API Design Platform Design Mocking Documentation Governance Visibility Collaboration Development
- 5. 4 The Business Value of APIs
- 6. 5 “ Why Should Leaders Care About APIs? “Over a four-year period that firms using APIs saw 12.7% more growth in market capitalization compared to those that did not adopt APIs” (+38% growth over a 16-year period) – Marshall Van Alstyne Forbes, 2021
- 7. 6 APIs Help Your Business Become Composable & Adaptable for Transformation There’s a difference between a composable business and a marketplace. ● Technology leaders should seek a Composable business model. ○ Modularized architecture based on business capabilities, i.e. “what do we do for customers, in their language?” ● Whereas a Marketplace focuses on supply and demand connecting consumers and producers. ○ Usually implies composable architecture, but doesn’t necessarily require it. ○ Understanding network effects is key to building Marketplaces the right way
- 8. 7 Ok, so APIs are important. How should we treat them?
- 9. 8 Your API is just another product… Let’s discuss how to treat them as such.
- 10. 9 Treating APIs as a Product Recognize Relationships Gain Business Buy-In Enhance Your Acceptance Criteria
- 12. 11 Identify Relationship Constituents Step One: Create a customer-centric mindset - know who your customer is and adopt their needs into your culture. Step Two: Investigate API usage. ● Analyze data, and talk to power users. Step Three: Answer these questions: ● Are there integration partners at play, and what is valuable to them? ● Do they need access to customers’ data with consent, or in aggregate? ● Do customers need to get their own data? ● Raw data may not be useful, are there aggregated or calculated aspects?
- 13. 12 “ Product Managers: Know who the consumer will be and the business relationship that you will be building. If you understand how you're operating your business, with adequate success measures, you’re on your way to building a great API.”
- 14. 13 One relationship type at a time. Don’t boil the ocean.
- 16. 15 “ “An API is no different than an other product. You need to help traditional business management into understanding the relevance behind the API program.”
- 17. 16 How to Gain Executive Buy In ● Before Approaching Execs: → Ask yourself — how does the API fit into the overall business model? → Understand how your revenue is shifting from traditional channels to integrated flows. ● Gaining Buy In: Demonstrating the Value of your API → Don’t focus on technical operation measures but on the bigger business picture. → Avoid focusing on API calls or operational aspects as a measurement of success. ● Recognize when you're operating a marketplace → If APIs are involved there could be some marketplace construct. → Thinking in supply and consumption may change your business fundamentals.
- 19. 18 “ “If you’re not putting the business perspective around why you're building APIs, it's really easy to kill it from a management POV."
- 20. 19 If you don’t treat your APIs as products… It becomes just a commodity. A tech artifact. You end up with an engineered design experience instead of designing for the end-user. This is system-centric, not customer-centric.
- 22. 21 Automate Your Signoff Build Acceptance Criteria scenarios in customer- centric language Repeatable automated testing raises the bar on quality Automate by default, no brittle UX!
- 23. 22 For more tips and tricks on the API space...
- 24. 23 Check out Stoplight’s API Intersection Podcast The podcast on the intersection between API design and digital transformation. Available Wherever You Listen to Podcasts
- 25. 24 Questions?