The document discusses 10 patterns in successful APIs and API programs. It covers topics such as having clear API ownership and evangelism, establishing an early and consistent API vision and metrics, designing compelling and differentiated APIs, focusing on providing the essential features developers need with the mantra of "less is more", and ensuring the scalability and performance of the API platform and processes. The patterns discussed aim to help organizations build successful API strategies and programs.

1. 10
Pa&erns
in
Successful
API
Programs
Greg
Brail
-­‐
@gbrail
Brian
Mulloy
-­‐
@landlessness

2. @landlessness @gbrail

3. API Workshop Webinar Series
Mapping
out
your
API
Strategy
✓
Pragma;c
REST:
API
Design
Fu
✓
10
Pa&erns
in
Successful
API
Programs
What
to
Measure
API
Tech
&
Roadmap
Considera;ons
Driving
API
Adop;on

4. PaHerns
in
Successful
APIs
and
API
Programs
1. Clear
API
ownership
and
strong
internal
evangelism
2. Early
and
consistent
vision,
strategy,
and
metrics
3. Compelling
and
differen:ated
API
4. Reminder:
Less
is
more
5. APIs
are
designed
for
adop:on
6. Get
feedback
early
and
iterate
quickly
7. Create
leverage
with
developer
community
8. APIs
designed
to
understand
use,
prevent
misuse
9. Design
business
model
and
policies
from
start
10. Scalability
and
performance
of
plaYorm
and
process

5. 1.
Clear
API
ownership
&
strong
internal
evangelist
Strong
sponsor
and
leader
of
API
and
developer
program
understands
the
company
strategy
and
how
APIs
can
help
promote
that
strategy
Dedicated
API
team
dedicated
product,
engineering,
community
manager
Effec:ve
community
manager
extrovert,
can
code,
good
at
online
and
offline
community
constant
internal
evangelism,
excitement,
events

6. 2.
Early
and
consistent
API
vision,
strategy,
metrics
Consistent
ar:cula:on
of
API
vision
–
from
execu:ves
to
engineers
Alignment
with
company
goals
Vision,
mission,
strategy,
objec;ves
Early
buy-­‐in
on
top
metrics
Makes
it
easy
to
priori;ze
roadmap
features
Track
actual
numbers
against
projected
numbers
Based
on
comparable
data
from
compe;tors
and
conversion
rates
Publish
weekly
dashboard
widely
with
discipline

8. VMSO
Framework
Vision
(the
dream)
Lead
our
industry
in
doing
business
beyond
the
browser
Mission
(day-­‐to-­‐day
guiding
philosophy)
Applica;on
developers
are
customers
Strategy
(how
to
get
there
fastest)
Focus
on
mobile
and
social
developers
Smoothest
on-­‐ramp
for
new
developers
High-­‐quality,
responsive
support
Objec:ves
(top
3
metrics
all
agree
on
)
Reach
-­‐
Quan;ty
of
3rd
mobile
and
social
apps
Branding
-­‐
Logo
impressions
beyond
the
browser
Revenue
–
Revenue
generated
from
3rd
party
apps

9. Example
API
Metrics
Metric
area
Candidate
KPIs
Awareness
Audience:
unique
users,
referrals,
page
views,
marke;ng
effec;veness
engagement
Traffic
sources
(Google,
corp
website,
etc.)
Sign-­‐ups
Registra;ons
(developer
keys)
messaging
effec;veness
Adop:on
Ac;ve
developers,
partners
measure
of
product
fit
in
Applica;ons
by
type,
geo,
traffic
market
End
users
Traffic
(%
vs.
non-­‐API),
Lost
Customers
Quality
‘Net
promoter’
score
measures
dev
process
user
experienced
problems
effec;veness
Cri;cal
situa;ons
(CritSits)
Community
Forum
traffic
and
discussions
measure
of
customer
3rd
party
advocates
sa;sfac;on
Financial
Revenue?
measure
of
business
success
Cost
of
data
served?
Profit
Market
share

10. Example
Metrics
Dashboard
Objec;ve:
Agreement
on
Key
business
metrics
with
senior
management,
product,
and
developer
community
team.
sec:on
1
strategic
metrics
from
VMSO
vs.
realis;c
projec;ons
sec:on
3
priori;zed
sec:on
2
projects
opera;onal
metrics

11. 3.
Compelling,
differen;ated
API
Your
API
should
be
valuable*
Valuable
=
useful
Do
developers
already
solving
this
problem
want
to
use
it?
Code
examples
=
top
priority
resource
First-­‐class
product
management
effort
Build
for
use
cases
focusing
on
developer
problem
Will
your
customers
really
get
this?
Clear
differen;a;on
How
is
our
API
different?
*Crea;ng
successful
developer
programs
-­‐
Dave
McClure

12. Product
Posi;oning
Example
For
the
Developers
building
web,
mobile,
and
social
apps
using
maps
target
customer and
driving
direc;ons
Who
needs
Accurate,
free,
comprehensive
mapping
primary
need
Our
Solu:on
is
Free,
global,
accurate
mapping
and
direc;ons
APIs
category
That
Provides
the
most
accurate
and
comprehensive
free
mapping
key
benefit and
driving
direc;ons
services
Unlike
Error-­‐prone
Google
maps,
or
costly
Mapquest
direc;ons
compe::on
Solu:on
is
The
most
accurate
free
maps
and
driving
direc;ons
available
greatest
differen:a:on
What
we
don’t
do Not
every
feature,
no
‘for
pay’
maps

13. 4.
Less
is
more
Design
for
target
developers
and
apps
Horizontal
or
Ver;cal?
i.e.
iPhone
apps?
large
partners?
Certain
plaYorms?
Who
are
we
building
for?
When
in
doubt,
leave
it
out
Don t
try
to
make
everyone
happy
You
can
add
but
never
remove!
Releasing
internal
API
func;ons
to
external
developers
Spend
10x
more
effort
using
API
versus
building
it
Rule
of
3
-­‐
write
3
example
apps
similar
to
targeted
apps*
Then
publish
example
apps
for
developers
*How to design a good API and why it matters - Google Tech Talk by Joshua Bloch

14. 5.
APIs
are
designed
for
adop;on
Standard,
simple
APIs
=
more
customers
Pragma;c
REST
-­‐
easier
to
learn
and
use
without
doc
Great
developer
programs
have
great
doc
and
sample
code
Bonus:
Pragma;c
REST
is
easier
to
secure,
analyze
Don't
add
anything
weird'
–
straight
REST,
XML,
JSON
Keep
calls
small
and
granular
No
custom
security
schemes
Use
straight
Oauth
Lots
of
APIs?
Focus
on
consistent
developer
experience
APIs
look
like
from
same
company,
same
process
to
get
started
Lightning
fast
to
register
and
get
started!

16. 6.
Get
feedback
early
and
iterate
You
won t
get
it
right
the
first
:me
Listen
and
respond
honestly
and
quickly
to
developers
“Our
customers
took
us
in
an
en;rely
different
direc;on”
Release
to
a
select
alpha
then
beta
group
for
early
feedback
First,
find
internal
customers,
friends,
do
a
hack
day
Find
developers
solving
the
same
problem
and
ask,
“will
you
use
it?”
Design
for
agility
Bad
versioning
strategy
will
drown
API
team
in
maintenance
Don't
code
in
underlying
architecture
(example:
SQL
calls)
Version
in
packages
-­‐
keep
the
version
in
the
URL
Determine
costs
of
backward
compa;bility

17. 7.
Create
leverage
through
community
Community
is
crucial
for
an
API
team
to
manage
and
drive
adop:on
Responsive
,
open
communica;on
cri;cal
to
credibility,
adop;on
Store
feedback
to
forums,
FAQ,
stay
off
the
phone
Can
someone
not
on
your
payroll
go
do
your
demo?
Developer
marke:ng
!=
just
a
developer
portal
Before
building
your
own
community
–
plug
into
exis;ng
communi;es
Target
key
communi;es
–
iOS,
Android,
php,
…
Think
about
audience,
tools
and
community
working
together
Understand
what
mo:vates
your
developers
Developers
hate
marke;ng
–
want
problems
solved
Developers
want
skills
for
their
next
job
to
see
their
products
used
to
be
famous
to
get
paid
There
is
a
pecking
order
and
superstars
with
developers
-­‐
target
them

18. Profile
Developer
Segments

19. Target
specific
communi;es
Apigee
before
and
axer
TwiHer
Chirp

20. 8.
Good
API
design
has
many
virtues
API
design
facilitates
analysis
Use
a
sub-­‐domain
to
balance
&
analyze
traffic;
use
API
keys
Lesson
learned:
discern
Apps
from
Developers
from
Users
Analyze
use
and
misuse
-­‐
inten:onal
and
otherwise
Lesson
learned:
customers
observed
partners
viola;ng
terms
Lesson
learned:
observe
the
old
API
before
designing
new
API
Design
usage
policies
from
beginning
Rate
limits
(ops
policy)
and
quotas
(business
policy)
Don’t
enforce
key
policies
axer
the
fact
Implement
your
terms
of
use
Don’t
cut
off
developers
or
partners
without
communica;on

21. 9.
Set
Business
Model
Expecta;ons
Set
expecta:ons
with
developers
and
partners
ahead
of
:me
Policies
are
implemented
and
enforced
from
the
beginning
Bake
business
model
in
from
the
start
Op:ons
for
mul:ple
SLAs
and
:ered
levels
Free
op;on
for
closed
APIs
to
drive
adop;on
Paid
op;ons
and
for
partner
and
premium
content
Set
expecta:ons
with
execs
Will
API
drive
new
business?
Will
API
expand
brand
reach?

22. 10.
API
Performance
Poor
API
performance
and
reliability
is
a
business
issues
Do
capacity
planning
-­‐
use
realis;c
conversion
rates
Not
just
traffic
but
concurrency
Caching
and
traffic
management
controls
can
extend
scalability
Rate-­‐limi;ng
vs.
quotas
Control
bursts
over
planned
peak
Don’t
cut
off
best
developers
Design
for
scale
of
business
processes
Interview
each
area
of
the
business
to
determine
impact
of
API
Model
processes
at
an;cipated
peak
scale
Design
and
Prac;ce
processes
as
part
of
pre-­‐launch
checklist

23. Great
APIs
to
Emulate
Twilio
-­‐
pure
telephony
API
Wordnik
-­‐
best
API
docs
on
earth
Facebook
Graph
-­‐
reads
like
a
book
Yelp
-­‐
poor
API
resources
but
unique
content
(user
generated
content)
Yahoo
-­‐
great
off
line
innova;on
engine
–
Hack
Day
Google
-­‐
great
online
resources
Twi&er
-­‐
laser
focus,
very
easy
to
understand,
developer
console
SimpleGeo
-­‐
smart
geo
API
design
GameSpy
-­‐
all
they
offer
is
an
API
eBay
&
Paypal
-­‐
great
resources
for
affiliates
Amazon
-­‐
API
is
not
well
done,
but
service
is
valuable
Wufoo
-­‐
ar;cula;on
of
the
API
design
and
principles
Stackoverflow
-­‐
deep
developer
community
and
engagement
ProgrammableWeb
-­‐
great
SEO,
showcase
developers,
deep
resources
GitHub
-­‐
deep
code
resources

24. THANK
YOU
Ques%ons
and
ideas
to:
@landlessness
@gbrail
@apigee