1. When to soar
and when to dive
The practicalities of keeping strategy and
API execution in balance
September 2023

2. Helping people and teams realise the full
potential of APIs
>50k hours consulting and being consulted to
on IT-enabled strategy and execution
Keeping it human
Director, APIsFirst
www.linkedin.com/in/claire-global
Co-founder, The API Collective
www.theapicollective.com
Global lead for Women In APIs
apidays.global/initiatives-women-in-apis

3. Topics
Current strategic climate for APIs
How it’s playing out for 3 scenarios
● What it feels like from an API perspective
● Where to focus: zoomed out vs close-up
What works… from a people perspective

4. 90% of C-level and senior leaders say their
organizations have pursued at least one
large-scale digital transformation in the
past two years.
McKinsey 2022

5. 3 scenarios (fictional)
● Ship building
● Major surgery
● Social activism

6. Scenario 1
Ship building
Complex legacy backend overhaul
and rewiring
Already in year 2+
API investment focus:
● new/better integration
● composability and reuse
● API discoverability, management
and governance
Execution focus.
Photograph from www.pexels.com

7. What it feels like on the ground
What’s going well
Growing, centralised API portfolio
API standards and expectations
Architectural context for APIs
API education - at least in principle
Response to open standards etc
What needs attention
“Tech’s got it covered.”
API sprawl
API governance bottleneck/s
API portfolio risk profile
Motivation for (re)use of others’ APIs
APIs-as-products mindset

8. “We’re a digital company”
Operating model change from Project to
Product
API investment focus:
● Data and API products
● API monetisation
● New digital products
Emphasis on long-running teams; nimble
ways of working
Scenario 2
Major surgery
Photograph from www.pexels.com

9. What it feels like on the ground
What’s going well
Strategic / executive buy-in for
digitalisation
Opportunities for earlier and more
bluesky API-related thinking
Tech sector hires bringing in new
cultural norms and expectations
What needs attention
Engineers-as-customers
API-related processes in adjacent
functions
Success cases beyond customer
pain points
E2E support models for digital
products

10. Scenario 3
Social activism
Leadership direction towards social
responsibilities / ESG
API investments focus:
● Open source / community
platforms
● Ethical and green software
● Public APIs
Talent and connection to generational
influences
Photograph from www.pexels.com

11. What it feels like on the ground
What’s going well
Talent attraction and retention
Investors and customers due to
visibility in ESG
External-facing APIs getting use by
a lot by conscious API consumers
What’s needing attention
Avoiding unintentional greenwashing
Workforce and skills in ESG ‘angles’ and
use cases
Measurement systems that match the
API design and deployment promise
API product management mindset and
discipline

12. Some or all of these may be playing
out right now

13. Takeaways
Strategic context is in flux
People are trying to make
sense of it
There are many practical ways
to move forward…if you stay
balanced