Treating APIs as Products: How to Apply Product Management Principles to Your API Portfolio
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The document discusses the significance of treating APIs as products to enhance their usability and adoption. It outlines a seven-step program for API success that includes understanding target audiences, developing APIs, identifying KPIs, obtaining feedback, iterating, and marketing them. Additionally, it highlights the benefits of a product-focused approach, such as reduced interdependencies and the potential for new revenue channels.
Treating APIs as Products: How to Apply Product Management Principles to Your API Portfolio
- 2. Meet Today’s Presenters Keshav Vasudevan Product Marketing Manager Ryan Pinkham Marketing Manager Twitter: @keshinpoint Nathan Wright Solutions Engineer
- 3. Page Proprietary & Confidential 3 Twitter: @keshinpoint Companies Entering the Platform Ecosystem
- 4. Page Proprietary & Confidential 4 Twitter: @keshinpoint Platforms Drive The Internet’s GDP The internet drives over 1.2 trillionEuros in sales Platform ecosystems are a major driver of this growth
- 5. Page Proprietary & ConfidentialTwitter: @keshinpoint ProgrammableWeb API Directory lists 19,000+ public facing APIs API Trend Volume APIs are the building blocks behind this innovation. 5
- 6. Page Proprietary & Confidential 6 Twitter: @keshinpoint A Product Approach to APIs Backend Developers Frontend Developers Client A Database Implementation Implementation Implementation Mock Mock Mock API API API Client B Client C
- 7. Page Proprietary & Confidential 7 Twitter: @keshinpoint API Product Management Focus ProductManager Consumer need • Develop valuable, usable APIs • OptimizeDeveloper Experience • Articulate business benefits • Justify ROI Executives
- 8. Page Proprietary & Confidential 8 Twitter: @keshinpoint Benefits of Treating APIs as First Class Products Reduced interdependencies, allows teams to work attheir own pace Faster development and delivery Easier expansion todifferent interfaces, clients andviews Developer friendly services to build ecosystems and platforms Faster Development New Revenue Channels and Growth
- 9. Page Proprietary & Confidential 9 Twitter: @keshinpoint The 7 Step Program For API Success 1 Understand the API’s target verticals 2 Understand the API’s purpose 3 Develop the API 4 Identify KPIs 5 Obtain feedback 6 Iterate 7 Market
- 10. Step 1: Understand the API’s Audience Twitter: @keshinpoint 1 0
- 11. Page Proprietary & Confidential 11 Twitter: @keshinpoint Anticipate Needs of Customers Needs ofdirect customers Eg: Users of Slack wanta central place to getnotified of all collaborative activities of external tools Eg: Amazon’s internal teams wanttoconsume each other’s services via JSON payloads Expose the right data and resources for direct customers Eg: UsersofSlackwanta centralplacetogetnotified ofallcollaborativeactivities ofexternaltools Anticipate and prepare for indirect customers Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 12. Page Proprietary & Confidential 12 Twitter: @keshinpoint Evaluating Consumer Needs Articulate consumer need from the following research – Understand audience Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback Qualitative and quantitative research Competitive research Geographic potential Identify API purpose
- 13. Page Proprietary & Confidential 13 Twitter: @keshinpoint Your Vertical Can Be Another’s Horizontal Search by location Search by category Search by phone Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 14. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 2: Understand the API’s Purpose Twitter: @keshinpoint 14
- 15. Page Proprietary & Confidential 15 Twitter: @keshinpoint Top Down Approach Consumer needBusiness need Web Mobile IoT Devices Service Components API Layer Database Backend language Application Servers Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 16. Page Proprietary & Confidential 16 Twitter: @keshinpoint Companies that Move Faster ModelCompanies Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 17. Page Proprietary & Confidential 17 Twitter: @keshinpoint Leveraging the API Economy ModelCompanies Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 18. Page Proprietary & Confidential 18 Twitter: @keshinpoint Demo – API Purpose And Audience HR API Requirements - New HR app is being developedacross multipleplatforms - API is required to retrieve and submit employee data Organization - API Architects - Read / Write - DevelopmentTeam - Read/Comment - QA Team - Read
- 19. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 3: Design, Develop and Deliver API Twitter: @keshinpoint 19
- 20. Page Proprietary & Confidential RESTful Interface Call the API (request) Obtain data (response) Restful Interface Technical Writer Developer Tester Architect Keeps in Sync 20 Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback Twitter: @keshinpoint
- 21. Page Proprietary & Confidential 21 Twitter: @keshinpoint Conceptualizing the Service: Design First • API Product Management and Design Firstgoes hand-in-hand • Stakeholders (back end, front end, PMs) have full visibility intowhat the service is supposed to do • Puts the business objective of the APIfirst before the technology OpenAPISpec:HumanandmachinereadableinterfaceforRESTAPIs Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 22. Page Proprietary & Confidential Example of an OAS Defined API Requests Responses API Overview 22 Twitter: @keshinpoint
- 23. Page Proprietary & Confidential Example of Documentation Hosted on SwaggerHub 23 Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback Twitter: @keshinpoint
- 24. Page Proprietary & Confidential 24 Twitter: @keshinpoint Developing the Service Design,Documentation andDevelopment Swagger Tools Developmentand Testing MockingandVirtualization Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 25. Page Proprietary & Confidential 25 Twitter: @keshinpoint API Design Can Be Challenging Consistent design styles across API’s while collaborating Confusion while collaboratingwith team Loss of speed and time while iterating through design Infrastructure cost associated with hosting API and managing privacy
- 26. Page Proprietary & Confidential 26 What Is SwaggerHub? Faster,Standardized Design SwaggerHub is the API design and documentation platform built for teams to drive consistency and discipline across their API development workflow. Confusion Free Collaboration Centralized API Catalog Twitter: @keshinpoint
- 27. Page Proprietary & Confidential 27 Twitter: @keshinpoint Demo – API Design /users Retrieve user data Query Parameters: > UUID *required > first_name (optional) > last_name (optional) GET Returns matching user object { “status”: 200, “UUID”: “3110-78-8832” “first_name”: “James”, “last_name”: “Stevens”, “email”: “j_stevens@sb.com”, “join_date”: “1511884800” } 200 Submit new user data Body: { "first_name": “Peter", "last_name": “Richards", "email": “p_richards@sb.com", "join_date": “1512655200" } POST Returns created user object { “status”: 200, “UUID”: “3110-78-8833” "first_name": “Peter", "last_name": “Richards", "email": “p_richards@sb.com", "join_date": “1512655200“ } 200 Returns error message { “status”: 404, “message”: “Bad Request” } 404
- 28. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 4: Identify Metrics of Success Twitter: @keshinpoint 28
- 29. Page Proprietary & Confidential 29 Twitter: @keshinpoint Choosing the Right KPIs Traffic Registrations Direct revenue Indirect revenue Size of dev community New business App retention Size of partner ecosystem Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback Whatis your API’spurpose?
- 30. Page Proprietary & Confidential 30 Twitter: @keshinpoint Metrics That Matter Consumer JourneyBusiness Goals Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 31. Page Proprietary & Confidential 31 Twitter: @keshinpoint Business Goal Metrics Direct Monetization KPI: Increase in MRR Indirect Monetization KPI: New customers/users referred through API Package Monetization KPI: Customer lifetime value of API users vs non API users Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 32. Page Proprietary & Confidential 32 Twitter: @keshinpoint Audience Journey Metrics How should consumer register for key? How does consumer usethe API? How many times does consumer usethe API? How many times does consumer shareAPI with others? Time to register and obtain key Time to Hello World API calls/time Shares, referrals Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 33. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 5: User Feedback Twitter: @keshinpoint 33
- 34. Page Proprietary & ConfidentialTwitter: @keshinpoint Products Evolve With Good Feedback Scoutearlyadoptersfromtheright channels • Existing customers • StackOverflow, Gitter, GitHub etc OrganizeHackathons Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback 34
- 35. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 6: Iterate Twitter: @keshinpoint 35
- 36. Page Proprietary & Confidential Step 7: Marketing The API Twitter: @keshinpoint 36
- 37. Page Proprietary & Confidential 37 Twitter: @keshinpoint Inbound Marketing Efforts API positioning Messaging Documentation Website Dev Portal Blogs ebooks Webinars Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 38. Page Proprietary & Confidential 38 Twitter: @keshinpoint Examples Understand audience Identify API purpose Develop the API Identify KPIs Market APIIterateObtain feedback
- 39. Page Proprietary & Confidential 39 Twitter: @keshinpoint Outbound Marketing Developer evangelism and advocacy Community building Hackathons
- 40. Page Proprietary & Confidential 40 Twitter: @keshinpoint Summary • APIscandrive business and technologicalgoals • Treating APIsas firstclass productsof yourportfolio candrive APIadoptionandstrategicgrowth 1 Understand the API’s target verticals 2 Understand the API’s purpose 3 Develop the API 4 Identify KPIs 5 Obtain feedback 6 Iterate 7 Market