How to Successfully Market an API Fine-Tuning Developer Relations & Platform Advocacy
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How to Successfully Market an API Fine-Tuning Developer Relations & Platform Advocacy Nordic APIs This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/how-to-market-an-API This version was published on 2016-09-29 This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and publishers with the Lean Publishing process. Lean Publishing is the act of publishing an in-progress ebook using lightweight tools and many iterations to get reader feedback, pivot until you have the right book and build traction once you do. © 2016 Nordic APIs Contents Preface ............................. i Part One: Planning ................ 1 Building from the Ground Up: Tips for Starting Your API Program .......................... 2 Clarify Your Needs .................... 3 Get Buy In (From Everyone) ............... 4 Aim for a Public MVP ................... 5 Act on Feedback ...................... 7 Build your Practice .................... 8 Final Thoughts ....................... 9 Define Your Target Developer Audience .......... 11 Why Create a Developer “Persona”? . 12 The Developer Brain ................... 13 But Plenty of Other People Are Interested in APIs, Too! 14 Expanding our Portal: Developer End User Evangelism . 15 Varying Industry Backgrounds . 16 Location & Demographics . 18 API Use Cases ....................... 18 Technology Preferences . 19 Lessen The Corporate Branding . 20 Developer Experience ................... 21 Build it And They Will _____ . 22 CONTENTS Understand Your Audience . 22 Developer Experience is a Key Ingredient of Quality APIs 23 API Model Canvas – offspring of Lean Canvas . 24 Developers are the Rockstars of the API Economy . 25 Addressing the Entire API Model Canvas . 27 Case Study: National Library of Finland . 27 MVP for next step ..................... 28 Gain speed and make it fun . 29 Final Thoughts ....................... 29 Part Two: Developer Relations ..... 31 Ingredients That Make Up a Superb Developer Center .. 33 Getting Started Guide ................... 34 Authentication Guide ................... 34 API Documentation .................... 36 Testing Environment ................... 37 Developer Resources ................... 39 Support Channels ..................... 40 Platform Policy ...................... 42 Cater Your Home Presence to Non-Developers Too . 43 Final Thoughts ....................... 45 Crafting Excellent API Code Tutorials that Decrease On- boarding Time ...................... 46 Setting the Context .................... 47 Exploring the Details ................... 49 Creating an Application . 51 Final Thoughts ....................... 51 What is the Difference Between an API and an SDK? ... 53 Define: API ........................ 54 Define: SDK ........................ 55 Squares and Rectangles . 55 CONTENTS Examples .......................... 56 Apples and Oranges .................... 61 Developer Resources: SDKs, Libraries, Auto Generation Tools ............................ 62 What Are Helper Libraries? . 63 Why Not Just Let Them REST? . 63 Data Problem ....................... 64 Programming Language Trends . 65 Discover What Languages Your Consumers are Using . 66 Who Should we Model? . 67 HTTP is Language Agnostic . 69 5 Tips for Helper Library Design . 69 Last Line of API Code: Your API is Never Really Finished 70 A Human’s Guide to Drafting API Platform Policy .... 71 Key Themes ........................ 72 Defining Responsibilities . 73 Setting Expectations .................... 74 Describing Good Behaviors . 75 Final Thoughts ....................... 76 Creating A Brand Guide for Your API Program ...... 78 Platform Strategy Dictates Brand Requirements . 79 Brand Guide Components . 80 Formatting Your Design Guide . 86 The Effect of Zero or Poor Branding Guidelines . 87 Final Thoughts ....................... 88 Examples of API Branding Guides in the Wild: . 88 Part Three: Promotion ............. 90 Perfecting Your API Release ................. 91 What do I release? ..................... 92 Time Your Release ..................... 92 CONTENTS Widen Your Potential Audience . 92 Have the Right Monetization plan . 93 Have a Demo ....................... 93 Have Awesome Branding . 93 Tips to Make Your API More Discoverable ......... 95 SEO Approach: Optimization of API Homepages . 96 Service Discovery Automation . 99 Cheat Sheet of 10+ API Directories to Submit Your API to 102 Important Press Networks and Developer Channels in the API Space ......................... 106 Press Release Distribution . 106 API-Specific Blogs, Thought Leaders, and Digests . 107 General Tech & Developer News . 107 Nordic Tech Press/News . 108 Social Bookmarking . 108 API Events . 109 The Everpresent Commentator . 109 Utilizing Product Hunt to Launch Your API ........ 110 Alpha, Closed Beta, Open Beta, or Full Release? . 111 Preparing for a Release . 112 Offering Exclusive Deals: The Gold Star . 114 Actually Submitting a Profile on Product Hunt . 116 The Launch: Introduce Yourself, Play Nice, Get the Word Out . 118 The Unanticipated Launch . 119 The Return on Investment . 121 The Internet’s Watercooler is Product Hunt . 122 Resources . 123 CONTENTS Part Four: Advocacy ............... 124 Day in the Life of an API Developer Evangelist ...... 126 8 Important Job Roles of a Software Evangelist . 127 What does an Evangelist do each day? . 134 Evangelism vs Advocacy . 135 Q&A Section . 136 Conclusion . 140 Interviewees: . 140 How to Offer Unparalleled Developer Support ...... 141 The Importance of Developer Outreach . 141 Email and Social Media . 142 Event Hosting and Attendance . 145 Documentation and Knowledge Bases . 146 Conclusion . 148 Accumulating Feedback: 4 Questions API Providers Need to Ask Their Users .................... 149 Why Feedback is Important . 150 What Do You Expect From This API? . 150 What Is Your Greatest Frustration with the API? . 153 Why Did You Choose Our API? . 154 If You Could Change Our API, How Would You? . 155 Methods to Use for Accumulating Feedback . 156 Think As a User . 159 How to Hold a Killer First Hackathon or Developer Con- ference ........................... 160 Types of Get-Togethers . 161 What is a Hackathon? . 161 What is a Developer Conference? . 161 What’s the Difference? . 162 How to Host an Event . 163 What Makes an API Demo Unforgettable? ......... 170 CONTENTS 1: Describe the API, in a few words. 171 2: Convince we all share the same values of the API . 171 3: Impress with how great and easy your API is . 172 4: Interact with the audience . 173 5: Live coding mastery . 173 6: A theater-like script . 174 Preparation for potential technical flaws . 174 Conclusion . 175 Case Study: Twitter’s 10 Year Struggle with Developer Relations ......................... 177 2006 - 2010: The early days . 178 2010 - 2012: OAuthcalypse, competing with third party apps and other perceived betrayals . 179 2012 - 2013: Token limits and open war on traditional clients . 180 2013 - Present: Post-IPO controversies . 181 Wooing back developers . 182 New releases and optimism going forward . 183 Other social networks . 184 Review ........................... 187 TL;DR Checklist ........................ 188 Endnotes ............................ 190 Preface From Hello World to Hello Developers In the widening API sphere, marketing an API business involves knowing your community intimately, and fine-tuning your devel- oper support channels to help users excel. With APIs continuing to surge in importance across all industries, spreading API knowledge becomes increasingly important. More APIs equals more com- petition, meaning that API evangelism, the job of promoting a developer-centric program, now needs its own strategy. This eBook is the first of it’s kind. A compilation of advice and research geared specifically to DIY marketing for a public web Application Programming Interface or similar developer-oriented program. These aren’t tips for amassing hundreds of developer emails - no. This is about creating a usable frontend for your API platform that employs healthy developer outreach to naturally increase the prestige of your Software-as-a-Service. API Marketing is one of the Nordic APIs 6 Insights to API Practice; a core facet of providing an API. Thus, we’ve collated our best advice within this book to explore the Marketing Insight from four important angles: • Part 1 - Planning: Tips on starting your program, under- standing your target consumer segmentation, market re- search, and more using the API canvas model to position an agile API business. • Part 2 - Developer Relations: Discussions on onboarding and quality developer experience when it comes to overall API design as well as documentation and developer portal resources. Preface ii • Part 3 - Promotion: Outlines emerging API discovery tech- niques, API directories, and relevant press resources that will help spread awareness of your product, as well as ideas for creating informative content that informs and engages potential API users. • Part 4 - Advocacy: Lastly, we define community building best practices, the roles of program advocates, tips on holding your own developer conferences, API demoing, as well as case studies into developer relations failures and successes that companies have had in their public API programs in recent years. As you can see, we’ve taken a holistic approach to marketing in this volume. The end goal is help readers extend reach and onboard more developers to their API. So please enjoy How to Successfully Market an API, and let us know how we can improve. Be sure to join the Nordic APIs Digest for biweekly blog updates, and