Lessons from API-Second Development
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The document discusses the differences between API-first and API-second development strategies, highlighting challenges faced by API-second companies like Slice, which began as a consumer app before developing a public API. Key points include the need for clarity in what to achieve and protect in API strategies, emphasizing user focus and the balance between openness and security. Strategic questions and frameworks, such as the A-P-E framework, are provided to guide companies in effectively launching and managing their APIs.
Lessons from API-Second Development
- 1. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 1 VICTOR OSIMITZ SLICE TECHNOLOGIES MAY 2015 Lessons from “API-Second” Development
- 2. Two API Strategies Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 2 There is a lot of thought leadership around API-first development, but do the same rules apply for API-second companies? VS o API is core to these companies’ strategy from the start o Fundamentally organized to empower developers o Challenge: develop a valuable core technology underneath a well-designed API o These companies already have a successful product and are interested in growing through API partnerships o Different set of technical, product, and business challenges o Challenge: develop an intuitive, compelling API on top of a legacy code base and technology stack API-FIRST DEVELOPMENT API-SECOND DEVELOPMENT
- 3. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 3 Slice Is An API-Second Company SLICE: YOUR SMART SHOPPING ASSISTANT Track shipments automatically Store shopping receipts Monitor your spending 1 2 3 Item level data extracted from email receipts Founded in 2010, built out the consumer apps and back-end, started work on public API in 2013
- 4. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 4 Developers Led Us to API Strategy EBAY: SELL YOUR STUFF Track shipments automatically Store shopping receipts Monitor your spending 1 2 3 o By 2013, other companies were inquiring about using our technology o Collaboration with eBay: Sell your Stuff o We decided to build a public API to enable more developers to access purchase histories
- 5. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 5 API-First vs. API-Second WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
- 6. User Focus Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 6 KEY DIFFERENCES API-FIRST API as product: Developers are the customers, API is the UI, DX is the UX. API-SECOND API as by-product: API is often seen as a functional, un-sexy data pipeline for internal consumption. The core technology is the differentiator, API only affects developers, not decision makers. FOOD FOR THOUGHT Should you strive to delight our API consumers?
- 7. Product Focus Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 7 KEY DIFFERENCES API-FIRST Openness and robustness are deeply ingrained into API companies’ products and culture. APIs succeed in part by enabling a broad spectrum of use cases. API-SECOND Legacy infrastructure often built to a specific use case, technical debt most likely to be found in the API layer. Tendency to be cautious about making the API available to any developer, due to perceived or actual brittleness. API value prop may be unclear next to an existing product.
- 8. Go-to-Market Focus Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 8 KEY DIFFERENCES API-FIRST Freedom breeds creativity and new market possibilities that an existing company may never have imagined. API-SECOND Without an open strategy from the start, there may not be a consensus on what is core IP and must be protected, and what can be open. There is likely to be a temptation to hide everything behind NDAs and contracts. Resist this temptation! FOOD FOR THOUGHT Should you allow third parties to build products that compete with your core product?
- 9. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 9 Strategic Questions HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?
- 10. Use the A-P-E Framework Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 10 SET YOUR A-P-E GOALS What to ACHIEVE What to PROTECT What to ENABLE API strategies require absolute clarity on what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it.
- 11. What Do You Want to Achieve? Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 11 WHAT TO THINK ABOUT Setting data as our primary goal enabled us to offer our API completely free in many cases, and far below our competitors’ prices for larger integrations. OUR EXPERIENCE Diversified revenue stream? New user acquisition? What else? Raw data collection? Brand awareness/ recruitment channel?
- 12. What Do You Want to Protect? Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 12 WHAT TO THINK ABOUT Figure out what your core asset is, and protect it in a black box. But keep your API completely transparent. PROTECT CORE ASSETS ONLY API documentation is hidden behind a login Manual approvals are required for API access You worry somebody will reverse-engineer your technology You worry every time a developer signs up If any of these are true, you haven’t thought enough about what to Protect…
- 13. What Do You Want to Enable? Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 13 WHAT TO THINK ABOUT Generally, you should allow as many use cases as you can, but answering this ahead of time will help you design your API for the key cases you want to Enable. KEY USE CASES MASH-UPS PRODUCT INTEGRATIONS PLATFORM ADAPTATIONS COMPETITOR ACCESS
- 14. Case Study :: Slice API Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 14 Answering the A-P-E questions makes difficult decisions easy: Should we allow competing product on our API? How should we price it? How should we protect API documentation? o Raw data: more inboxes from more diverse sources o Revenue: to cover our costs, but not to serve as a profit center ACHIEVE PROTECT ENABLE o Our parsing technology remains a black box. The API exposes a simple object model but reveals nothing about our core technology. o We can be perfectly open about our API because there’s no way to reverse-engineer our core technology from the API. o Any experience that leverages purchase and shipment data. o Use cases as diverse as Gone!, Stuff by eBay, Trov, IFTTT, TheFind, financial services, etc., and we try to say yes to everybody who wants to use our API.
- 15. Slice Confidential - Do not copy or distribute without prior written consent 15 Thank you! api@slice.com @slicedev