Entering the Platform AgeHow to create genuine value for

internal and external API consumersSteven Willmott, steve@3scale.net @njyx

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

www.3scale.net

Platforms FTW!

THE VALUE OF PLATFORMS

Agility

Deliver more value, faster, with less resource

Platforms power the core of your business

EXAMPLE:UBER

EXAMPLE: “APPLE TV-OS READY” IN 2 WEEKS

Example: AmazonEcho

PLATFORMS & BI-MODAL IT

“Gartner's Recipe For Disaster”- Jason Bloomberg / Forbes

“This is akin to adding lipstick to the pig.”

- Simon Wardley, CSC

“Gartner’s bimodal IT consideredHarmful”

- Phil Wainewright / Diginomica

True if you are doing it wrong…

But this is not about separation

It’s about going from 1-1 to 1-N (and N-N)

1-1 IT

Need for software innovation drives deep integrations

Inte

rnal

Sys

tem

s

Appl

icatio

ns

1-N IT

Governance and APIs create reusable anchor points

N-N IT

Common governance rules can apply to APIs from anywhere

Platform value is “co-creation” of value between providers and

consumers

(buyers & sellers)(you & partners / customers)

(mode 1 & mode 2)

SO: HOW DO WE SUCCEED?

THREE KEYS

“Jeff Bezos Moment” (thank you @frankarr)

)

CHAPTER 1: AUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS

But ... adoption is slow …

#1: FOCUS ON VALUE

Walked th

rough

all major p

rocesses

Calculated co

st

benefit

EXAMPLE:MAPS CREDIT UNION

Loren Paulson, APIStrat, 2015

API for product listingBut not pricing or transacting

Almost null utilityEXAMPLE:MID-SIZED ECOMMERCE COMPANY

A Map of Expectations

Prohibited Design

Firedrill Innovation

Expected

Unexpected

DesirableUndesirable

Thor Mitchel, 2014

Questions to Ask

• Who is the customer?• Where is their value?• If we create this, will you use it?• What is the complete use case?

Key Strategy

Deliver value one API and one use-case at a time

CHAPTER 2: FOCUSING ON THE CHOSEN

More adoption … but still 50% off target

#2: OPTIMIZE FOR ACCESSIBILITY AND UTILITY

We have great developer experience … what happened?

Warning: Blasphemy Alert

Developer Experience is Overrated

Questions to Ask

• When Developer Experience is not enough • How do the APIs need to be consumed?• Who else might consume them? • Where do their effects propagate to? • What additional value can we add?

Web Ranking API

Realized plugins were

criticalPlugins now drive

majority of businessEXAMPLE:SIMILAR WEB

Noahm Schwartz, APIStrat, 2015

Millions of devices syncing

Robust libraries & dev

collaboration

Randomized back off

EXAMPLE:FITBIT

Jeremiah Lee, San Francisco, 2016

Amazon Alexa App

Query order is not

optimized for Voice

Secondary query rank in

client added EXAMPLE:CRUNCHBASE

Nicolas Greenie, San Francisco, 2015

Key Strategy

The API is not the key thing – the value is the key thing

CHAPTER 3: IN FULL FLIGHT

API Demand is up – multiple teams are using them: powering core business

Woho!!

But...

Hairy Panic!

#3: DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Questions to Ask

• How to split Dev, Ops, Management?• What do we automate? • What do we monitor? • Which APIs do we focus on first?• How will we manage change?

Vicious Circle

Virtuous Cycle

Key Strategy

N-N >>>>> 1-N

Governance + Support

e.g. tools, platforms, guides, design sages

CHAPTER 4: IMPACT!

• Very hard work• Unglamorous• It is not a big bang (big bet)• People get upset at rules and

restrictions • But … hugely rewarding

Recommendation:

Focus on Business(es) enabled (number, revenue)

TAKE AWAYS

Your company NEEDS your platform strategy to succeed

Even if you have a “Bezos Moment” – Keep focused on the value you

are delivering piece by piece

Try to empower both API creation and usage

BACK AT THE OFFICE…

A commitment…

1. Talk to ONE key API consumer in depth: nail their use case

2. Write that value down and articulate it for your whole API team

3. Assess the objectives for the API Platform program in terms of business supported

API Owners Manual

http://www.3scale.net@njyx @3scale

http://bit.ly/APIOwners

Images (Copyright Authors)• Apple TV Image, Apple.com: https://

support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare/images/en_US/appletv/apple-tv-3gen-home-screen.jpg

• Amazon Echo: Amazon stock marketing image• Bay Bridge: https://unsplash.com/photos/0iAzHzjeYRk • Jeff Sheldon https://unsplash.com/photos/o6Y9E-DdG6w• Taras Perevarukha https://500px.com/photo/215416/-by-taras-perevarukha• Richard Bland https://

500px.com/photo/89775589/coming-for-you-by-richard-bland?ctx_page=2&from=search&ctx_q=platform&ctx_type=photos&ctx_sort=relevance

• Kaleb Nimz: https://unsplash.com/photos/-5rA4DRrEXU• Seabags Creative: https://unsplash.com/photos/U3m4_cKbUfc• Todd Quankenbush https://unsplash.com/photos/IClZBVw5W5A• Hairy Panic http://

theconversation.com/what-is-the-hairy-panic-tumbleweed-that-has-buried-a-small-australian-city-55074