This document provides information on how to build customer-centric API products. It discusses the importance of customer centricity in APIs and defines API-as-a-product. Some key steps outlined include developing customer personas, creating an end-to-end API journey map, and focusing on the customer throughout the entire API lifecycle from discovery to monitoring. The document is intended to help organizations shift their culture to be more customer-centric when developing APIs.

1. Making
Customer-Centric
API Products

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3. What is Customer
Centricity?

4. Customer centricity is the ability of people in an
organization to understand customers'
situations, perceptions, and expectations.

5. A “customer” in this context is the
end user of your external API.

6. Why Does Customer
Centricity Matter
in APIs?

7. “
Customer centricity helps
companies build better
relationships with their
customers, which can help
them increase adoption,
retention, revenue.

8. 7
API
THE PROBLEM
Analyze Edit Build Test
Debug Deploy Monitor Diagnose
In a software development lifecycle where APIs are just considered
technology, the customer and business needs aren’t front-and-center.

9. 8
Center the needs of the customer throughout the lifecycle.
D
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M
onitor
Audit
D
i
a
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n
o
s
e
Tune
Feedback
Define
Design
B
u
i
l
d
T
e
s
t
Debug
THE SOLUTION
Customer-Centric
API Lifecycle

10. What is API-as-a-Product?

11. Like Software-as-a-Service, an API-as-a-Product
exposes and monetizes an organization’s unique
functionality or services. The API is at the core of the
business’s value.

12. API is not only the method of delivery;
it is what is being delivered.

13. APIs, like products, should be actively
maintained, supported, and easy to use.
They should have an owner who
advocates for the customer and strives
for continual improvement.

14. Start By Following a Classic Product Journey
Discovery Design Test Build Measure

15. Operating your API as a product gives you the
freedom and flexibility of an API and the ability to:
Release features more
quickly
Increase your API’s
value
Expand your revenue
opportunities
Reach to new customers
& audiences

16. 15
So your API is
a product…
…but how do we
make them
Customer
Centric?

17. → Consolidate inputs
→ Invest in skills
→ Focus on the customer

18. Develop Customer Personas
→ Personas take time to develop, and improving,
updating and enhancing them is an iterative
process.
→ Convey critical data points, behaviors,
preferences, purchase decision factors, and
drivers of satisfaction (and dissatisfaction)
→ Seek to increase the broader organization’s
adoption and value of the personas

19. “
Persona development is immature
in many organizations
—According to Gartner, only 36%
of survey respondents reported
their customer persona
development has been in place for
three years or more.

20. Create an End-to-end API Journey Map
→ Organizations that develop end-to-end
journey maps improve cross-functional
collaboration and customer experience
success.
→ Developing journey maps is not a
one-and-done exercise — journeys change
as customers change. Similar to developing
personas, journey mapping takes time and is
iterative.

21. Above all, choosing to focus on the
customer is a culture change.

22. About
Stoplight Stoplight is an Austin, TX-based
technology startup that helps teams build
quality APIs and scalable API programs.
Stoplight offers a complete API design platform
that integrates seamlessly into existing
workflows to enable all stakeholders to be more
collaborative, productive, and effective.
Get started with up to 3 users for free at
stoplight.io.

23. Govern
Promote reuse, consistency,
and quality
Design
Help architects design and create
beautiful, effective APIs
Integrate
Onboard with specification standards like
OpenAPI, JSON Schema, and Markdown
Develop
Build and test more quickly in parallel
using mocking and style guides
Collaborate
Collaborate via Git-less environments
and the Git workflows teams already
know and love
Document
Provide an amazing, integrated
developer experience
Scale
Build a leading, effective API program
across your organization

24. stoplight.io
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