If you treat adding an API to your product as any other feature, you will fail! Get guidelines about adding an API and the important role of engineers in the process.

1. Shay Weiner, Product Manager @ Wix Code
An API is not "yet another
feature"
shayw@wix.com linkedin/shayweiner
For Engineers

3. Netflix is able to
stream to over 200
different device types
thanks to its API.
60% of eBay’s listings
are done through their
API.
50% of Salesforce
transactions are done
through their API.
Twitter receives over
13 billion API calls
daily.

4. The special role of engineers
in adding an API to a product
TODAY

5. Software
Engineering
at BGU
Full Stack
developer
Team
Leader
Engineering
Manager
Product
Manager
@Wix Code
About me

6. Unique experience

7. Unique business logic

8. Configuration hell
Unique experience and
flows
Wix Code

9. Wix Code
▪ Wix elements
▪ Site database
▪ 3rd party services
▪ Wix solutions (e.g., Wix Stores)
▪ Node server
▪ Site API
▪ Report events (Facebook pixels)
import wixData from 'wix-data';
$w.onReady(function () {
return wixData.query("myCollection")
.find()
.then( (results) => {
$w("#myTable").rows = results.items;
} );
} )

10. Wix.com/code

11. Business
Justificatio
n

12. Wix Code APIs
allow Wix experts to offer unique
experience and flows for their clients
Business
Justification

13. Slack APIs
allow 3rd party applications to push / pull data
Business
Justification

14. Netflix is able to
stream to over 200
different device types
thanks to its API.
60% of eBay’s listings
are done through their
API.
50% of Salesforce
transactions are done
through their API.
Twitter receives over
13 billion API calls
daily.
Business
Justification

15. Engineers should help answer the question:
Who is going to make money using the API?
Business
Justification

16. New type
of users

17. A developer user
persona is different
from existing users, and
they’re the ones who
use the APIs.
Developer
User Persona

18. Existing experience Developer Experience
Developer
User Persona

19. Documentation
Existing users
How to videos & articles
Inline tooltips
Integration/application engineers
on site (B2B)
Developers
API Reference
Code examples
Developer
User Persona

20. Developer
User Persona

21. Developer
User Persona
User experience
Existing users
Consistent UX patterns
Consistent look & feel
On boarding
Developers
Getting started tutorial
SDK for multiple programing languages
Test console
Test kits

23. Developer
User Persona
Support
Existing users
Call center
Ticketing system
On site
Developers
Forum
Community

25. Developer
User Persona
Marketing
Existing users
Paid ads
Related industry conferences
Developers
Meetups
Developers forum (Stackoverflow, Hacker
news)
Hackathons

26. Educate your organization and take
the lead on developer experience.
Developer
User Persona

27. Product
scope

28. Usually goes like this
Dear developer, here are 5 features solving a user problem
please provide an effort estimation.
...
...
...
Product
Scope

29. IN
Feature 1
Feature 3
OUT
Feature 2
Feature 4
Feature 5
Product
Scope

30. IN
Feature 1
Feature 3
OUT
Feature 2
Feature 1
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
API
Product
Scope

31. Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
API First
Product
Scope

32. Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
IN
Feature 1
Feature 3
API First
Product
Scope

33. Wix Registration form
Product
Scope

34. Custom Registration form
Product
Scope

35. IN
Custom Registration UI
OUT
Custom Registration UI
with no code
Register new user
API First
Product
Scope

36. Community video
Product
Scope

37. API-First forces you to focus on the most
critical functionality
Product
Scope

38. When the API
goes public

39. Ariel has limited resources
When API
goes public

40. As long as she controls the access
she doesn't need to scale
When API
goes public

41. Introducing API means you lose control
of how customers use your product
When API
goes public

42. Prepare to scale...
When API
goes public

43. ...and scale more
When API
goes public

44. Measure
Success

45. Unique business logic
Measure
Success

46. Count unique developers
Measure
Success

47. Measure conversion to active usage
Measure
Success

48. Talk to your users and non-users
Measure
Success

49. Q&A
shayw@wix.com linkedin/shayweiner

50. Thank You
shayw@wix.com linkedin/shayweiner