apidays Helsinki & North 2023 API Ecosystems - Connecting Physical and Digital June 5 & 6, 2023 How can data-driven DevRel help identify gaps and enhance APIs? Hemchander Sundaraveloo, Sr. Developer Advocate at Pipedrive ------ Check out our conferences at https://www.apidays.global/ Do you want to sponsor or talk at one of our conferences? https://apidays.typeform.com/to/ILJeAaV8 Learn more on APIscene, the global media made by the community for the community: https://www.apiscene.io Explore the API ecosystem with the API Landscape: https://apilandscape.apiscene.io/

1. Hemchander S
Sr. Developer Advocate
Pipedrive
How can data-driven
DevRel help identify gaps
and enhance APIs?

3. Pipedrive - a CRM platform to grow your business
The first Customer Relationship Management tool designed by salespeople, for salespeople.
Learn more on our website!

4. Pipedrive’s App Marketplace & Developer Platform
Integrate, reach and expand

5. Ecosystem Flywheel
Integrate, reach and expand
More Builders
Partners, ISVs, Developers
More Apps
Integrations that solve product
gaps & add value.
More Customers
High stickiness to the Product.
Better lifetime value.

6. Ecosystem accelerates
the growth flywheel. APIs
& Platforms are the
enablers.

7. The Challenge
🤩 Users have adopted the API over the years.
Product First development
vs.
API First
API developed on the go
and ad-hoc from Product
😀 Key integrations are built generating value for customers.
😐 Unclear API functionality needs for Ecosystem users.
😶 Is API cost or profit for the company?

8. Understanding that
gaps exists
Building a shared
understanding
Technical
impact mapping
Add business impact
Double dimensional
analysis
Formulating the
API impact grid
Seeing the full
picture: Bringing
visibility to APIs as
a product
Overview: How did we tackle it?
Mapping
improvements
and next steps

9. Making the invisible
APIs, being somewhat invisible products with a massive user base,
play a crucial role in the success of businesses and ecosystems.

10. Usage
Over 50 billion API calls
in total from integrations.
APIs
245 API endpoints in total
spread across over 35 API
resources.
Apps
Around 440+ public apps
across 15 different categories
in Pipedrive Marketplace.
Let’s imagine!
So…what if 1 API request = 1 cricket ball?

11. The Scale
50 Billion ≅ We could fill the Great
Pyramid of Giza 5x over – and still
have balls to spare.
Activities
API
Contacts
API
Deals
API

12. The Scale
50 Billion ≅ We could fill the Great
Pyramid of Giza 5x over – and still
have balls to spare.
Activities
API

13. At least 73% of the 100 largest
SaaS companies offer an in-app
marketplace to customers built on
top of such APIs.
'Product Integrations and APIs at 400 SaaS Companies' Report[1]
Pandium, 2020

14. Shared understanding
We discovered that there's plenty of data
but not everyone is on the same page.

15. Lack of data was not
the real challenge
Surprise, surprise
Not everybody interprets the value of APIs the same way.
��
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Some practical challenges
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Cost and revenue motives of teams play an important role.
Data accessibility can be easily overlooked.
*The API
*Infra
*Product
*Engineering
*Sales
*DevRel

16. Lack of shared understanding &
recognition of APIs as a product
Clash of cost vs revenue
initiatives

17. Let's catalog
Crucial but often overlooked -
Cataloging and access to data
sources.

18. One-dimensional analysis: technical
Despite its simplicity, this approach for analyzing and
grouping observations has inherent limitations.

19. Focusing solely on technical or business perspectives
when examining APIs may not provide
comprehensive insights.
Looking at just one
dimension?
Might only reveal a partial view, making it difficult to
assess the entire API.
For instance…

20. Let's take the case of
forums Contact Forms
Email
PHP cURL
API Token
Rate Limit
Deals API
Moderation
SDK / Tooling
App UI
Custom Fields
*The graph represents topic clusters derived from
the top 1000 discussions in the Pipedrive
Developer Community.
Friction around endpoints and features
Technical gaps and feature requests
Developer experience around tooling
Easy to assess
The business impact of such gaps.
Customer and partner pain points
Areas of improvement with the best ROI
Hard to assess

21. Double it and give it to the next
person.
Random Tik Tok wisdom
(Ofc, I am kidding, but it does work)

22. Double dimensions:
business & technical
To envision a complete picture, understanding both are key.

23. Ways to incorporate the business aspect
Identifying core action your users
need to do (jobs)
Understanding the processes
they follow
Examining customer journeys Analyzing the use cases they aim
to solve

24. High-level insights
Mid-level classifications
Low-level data
👥Issues around Custom Fields (forum)
🔧Workarounds by apps to store data (app reviews)
🔴Rate-limit and performance issue with overloaded
endpoints (api consumption)
Friction around storing
structured information
Lead scoring
Activity tracking
Automation
Painting the complete picture
Let's combine technical with the business

25. Low-level
Frictions and gaps manifest
as issues, discussions or bad
app reviews, etc. They also
surface in quantitative data
which indicates an area for
improvement.
Mid-level
Groupings and patterns that
show up in the data sources
when looked at collectively.
These patterns can originate
from both qualitative and
quantitative data sources.
High-level
Talks about the functionality
provided by the product /
needed by the customer.
Another example
Let's combine technical with the business
High-level insights
Mid-level classifications
Low-level data
📣Pagination related issues (forum)
🚚Issues around filtering, batch creation, import
(GitHub issues, API errors)
🔴Frequent 429 error code alerts for specific API
resources (API consumption)
Users struggle with
bulk data-operations
Lead
generation
Contact
segmentation
3rd party data sync

26. Meet the API Impact Grid
Let’s combine both worlds using a 'linchpin'.

27. What holds everything together?

28. Apps = Linchpins
Bringing everything together
Apps connect low-level data with high-level insights.
They exist to solve business problems via APIs.
Studying apps based on the API footprint unlocks these
insights, identifies gaps.

29. Building the API Impact grid
1 Data gathering
2 Assessing DevX, friction
4 Figuring out the linchpin
5 Building the associations
3 Business area identification 6 Synthesis

30. Data gathering

31. Assess the DevX and friction
Connecting the low-level with high-level
By examining qualitative data sources related to API endpoints,
we gain insight into the level of friction associated with each
endpoint.
This, when combined with quantitative sources, helps us
identify existing technical gaps in our APIs.
Make sure to have a common classification taxonomy across
your qualitative data sources. Could be as simple as these 3:
● API resource
● Sub-area (aligned with API design principles)
● Feedback type (friction / gap)

32. Business areas x Apps
Offer customer / partner perspective
The ultimate success for both product and
DevRel teams lies in initiatives that not
only address technical challenges but also
effectively solve business problems.
Since apps act as linchpins, selecting a
handful of representative apps that
correspond to a business area is a great
way to start making these associations.

33. APIs that fit the business need are
crucial to partners and ecosystems.
It’s the first and foremost need from
API publishers.
State of API Integration Report[2]
Cloud Elements, 2021

34. Putting it together

35. Connecting the 'API' dots
API usage / data

36. Connecting the 'API' dots
Linchpins
API usage / data

37. Connecting the 'API' dots
Insights
Linchpins
API usage / data

38. Connecting the 'API' dots
Insights
Combines the technical and business
aspects into a unified view. Can be
used to identify gaps and areas of
improvement.
Linchpins
Apps act as a combiner since
they exist to solve the business
challenges while also making
use of technical features.
API usage / data
Data sources pertaining to
endpoints and their usage act
as the low-level foundation.

39. The Impact Grid
1 Associate
Impact grid shows API endpoints'
relevance to technical & business
areas.
2 Assess
Grid analysis helps assess current
API usage state.
3 Action 🎬
Analysis identifies areas needing
attention and improvement.

40. The template

41. Actionable derivatives
For both DevRel and product

42. Developer tooling
Pipedrive API restructuring &
improved Postman collection
resulting in 10x adoption.
Interactive code tutorials
Use-case specific tutorials
tailored to address common
friction points & to attract
ISVs.
Change management
Stricter checks, better API change
planning & rollouts.
Code / developer tooling
Seamless interaction with the API,
Simplifying integrating, and boosting
developer productivity.
Content
Enhancing documentation for better
API understanding and utilization.
Self-serve at scale.
Clear API Lifecycle
Minimize disruption for API
consumers. Less breaking
changes.
Solid understanding of the API influences the DevRel strategy
Developer Relations perspective
Enhancing the APIs

43. Product ←> API Parity
Targeted improvements for
essential API resources are
implemented, with the addition of
endpoints enhancing functionality
and coverage.
API Design Guidelines
Direct input to internal
guidelines - bringings
uniformity and predictability
Reliable endpoints
Business-critical endpoints are
monitored, adhere to SLAs and have
very minimal downtime.
API Packaging
Empowering App builders to
effectively fill product gaps and
monetize on top of that.
API Design
Ensuring an intuitive and
well-structured API that follows
industry best practices.
API Performance
Better response times with low
latency. Less resource intensive
endpoints.
Fostering enhancements in crucial API product areas
Product Perspective
Enhancing the APIs

44. 10x in a year…

45. …and meet some
of the awesome
members behind
the APIs.

46. Understanding that
gaps exist
Building a shared
understanding
Technical
impact mapping
Add business impact
Double dimensional
analysis
Formulating the
API impact grid
Seeing the full
picture: Bringing
visibility to APIs as
a product
Quick Recap
Mapping
improvements
and next steps

47. Employ data analysis to uncover ecosystem users' needs and detect API product gaps.
Key takeaways
Catalogue all data, ensuring universal accessibility for comprehensive understanding.
Identify your ecosystem's linchpin - for us, apps bridged technical and business perspectives.
Incorporate a business perspective in your analysis; the API Impact Grid aids this approach.
Engage with teams to grasp their cost/revenue objectives; iteratively improve the API.
API Grid Template

48. Thank you!