You may have heard the term “API Product.” But what does it mean? In this talk I will introduce the concept and explain the benefits and challenges of transforming your organization to view your APIs as measurable products that expose your companies capabilities.

1. OPEN Talk
What do you mean by “API as a Product”?

2. “APIs are the windows
to new ecosystems”
Harvard Business Review 1/7/2015

3. “APIs Are at the
Heart of Digital Business”
Gartner 4/20/2016

4. Don't Get Ubered: APIs Hold Key To Digital Transformation
“APIs are the secret sauce to becoming
digital”
Forbes 10/19/2015

5. APIs: Leverage For Digital Transformation
“…turn a digital asset into a powerful point
of leverage…”
Forbes 5/8/2017

6. “In our experience, product orientation is the missing
ingredient that makes the difference between
ordinary enterprise integration and an agile business
built on a platform of APIs.”
-ThoughtWorks
Source: https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/techniques/apis-as-a-product

7. Industry Challenge:
“The number of firms with mature API programs remains small. Most
organizations have just a dozen or so APIs instead of the hundreds needed
for a robust portfolio. And apart from a few early movers, most do not
have a formal API strategy, are unclear about the true value at stake, and
are uncertain about how to implement a program that quickly maximizes
consumer and business impact.”
-McKinsey & Company, September 2017
6
Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/what-it-really-takes-to-capture-the-value-of-apis
September 26th, 2017

8. Perspective:
“Consumer & Business Impact”

9. Services
supply-side thinking
APIs
demand-side thinking
• Asset-oriented
• Project
• Finite resources (sized for the known)
• System or function oriented
• Composable processes
• Monolithic systems
• Integration as required
• Horizontal teams
• Consumer-oriented
• Product
• Elastic / infinite resources
• Productized digital resources
• Composable products
• Microservices
• API as a new product channel
• Multi-functional teams
8September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

10. September 26th, 2017
Product definition:
“In marketing, a product is anything that can be
offered to a market that might satisfy a
want or need.”
9
Source: Wikipedia

11. Product: What
“In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to
a market that might satisfy a want or need.”
Digital resources (surfaced through APIs)
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 10

12. Product: Who
“In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to
a market that might satisfy a want or need.”
Consumers (B2B, B2C)
Partners / Distributors
Employees
Systems
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 11

13. Product: Why
“In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to
a market that might satisfy a want or need.”
Jobs to be done
Value
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 12

14. Design-Thinking
Definition: The design-thinking ideology asserts that a hands-on,
user-centric approach to problem solving can lead to innovation,
and innovation can lead to differentiation and a competitive
advantage. This hands-on, user-centric approach is defined by
the design-thinking process and comprises 6 distinct phases.
13
Source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/
September 26th, 2017

15. 14September 26th, 2017

16. Fictional Business
Mediocre Grocer
Supply-side Thinking
Loyalty Program
• Store coupons
• Purchases
• Account balance
• Purchase associated coupons
• Gas discounts
Internal use only
Demand-side Thinking
Fast & Healthy Advisor
• Healthy recipes
• Fast & easy recipes
• Food my family will enjoy
• Store item locator
• Associated coupons
Enable community & partners
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 15

17. Developing an API Product Mindset
16© Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved.September 26th, 2017

18. September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 17
Identify
Market definition
Consumer demand
Business opportunity
Innovation
API product canvas
Capabilities based domain
modeling
Community engagement

19. Measure
Expected value being created
Establish a model that validates product viability
Identify key metrics (KPIs)
Establish oversight
Measure performance to value
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 18

20. September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 19
Resource
Product-based funding based
on expected value
Multi-functional, vertically
aligned teams
Product-centric teams
Team ownership and
accountability
Self-service requisitioning of
infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
or platform as a service (PaaS)
Individual performance goals
and measures
Community support

21. September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 20
Build
DevOps
Backlog set by consumer value
Team owns from backlog to
prod
Standardization of design &
behavior
Prototyping
Test & Learn
Community engagement
Microservices

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Leverage
Evangelize
Marketing
API Product Manager
Community engagement
Developer Portal as a
marketplace
On-going communications
management
Self-service adoption
Feedback loops

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Evolve
Portal feedback
Ongoing marketplace
evaluation
Direct customer survey
Test & Learn
Community engagement
Innovation
Identify market adjacencies and
extensions

24. September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 23
Existing governance / gates
Existing SDLC processes
Separation of Business & IT
teams
Org-based incentives over
business value-based incentives
Project based teams
Project based funding
Goal alignment with business
Activities like product marketing
and content curation are new
considerations for IT

25. Wrap-up
“It all comes down to leverage: taking the things you already do well and
bringing them to the broadest possible audience. Which of your assets
could be reused, repurposed, or revalued—inside your organization or
outside? As traditional business models decline, APIs can be a vehicle
to spur growth, and even create new paths to revenue.”
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 24
Source: http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2015/10/14/cios-can-use-apis-to-drive-innovation/

26. Thank you!
September 26th, 2017 © Vanick Group, LLC. All rights reserved. 25

27. Founding Partner
lou.powell@vanick.com
Lou Powell
@vanicklou
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lou-powell/4/ba1/170
vanick.com

28. 27 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
VANICKDigital helps organizations…
 Form a digital strategy to accelerate business goals
You appreciate the value APIs present, but need help with a
forward-looking digital technology strategy that utilizes APIs as a
key foundational component
 Figure out how to get started
– Your company is invested in the idea that APIs should be
implemented as an accelerator for your digital strategy, but
you’re not sure where to start.
– This can’t become a program that takes 2+ years to get off the
ground.
– Vanick Digital will help you see immediate value as you produce
APIs to accelerate that next mobile initiative or E-commerce
opportunity, all while deliberately moving towards enterprise-
minded strategic goals.
 Grow enterprise value from existing API initiative(s)
– You know that IT has existing APIs and you may even be utilizing
them for some projects, but integrations are still expensive and
slow. Your APIs are not living up to the promise.
– There’s no cohesive vision for the disparate API solutions
throughout your organization.
– Vanick Digital will help drive a unified enterprise strategy to
align your various initiatives into a common platform. API
Management best practices will help you avoid common
pitfalls and help produce an efficient low-cost integration
experience from your API program.
 Implement their API program
– Once your API strategy is formed, Vanick Digital has the
architectural and development expertise in-house to help you
execute.
– Our experience with enterprise digital integration helps ensure
a seasoned, experience-focused outcome across various areas
of implementation, including:
 API & Systems Architecture
 API Management Platform Installation & Configuration
 API Design
 API Development & Private Cloud Hosting
 Effective Developer Experience