Keynote at APIDays Melbourne 2016, Steven Willmott - 3scale. Organizations have recognized that making available IT systems as APIs for both internal and external developers can create huge new opportunities for agility, products and ultimately revenue. However, while this "platform thinking" holds great potential, it can be extremely challenging to determine how to deliver on these opportunities. In this talk we'll look at how focusing on the value APIs can deliver helps underpin genuine success for an API program and an organization's platform initiatives as a whole.

1. Entering the Platform Age
How to create genuine value for
internal and external API consumers
Steven Willmott, steve@3scale.net @njyx

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

3. www.3scale.net

4. Platforms FTW!

6. THE VALUE OF PLATFORMS

8. Agility

9. Deliver more value, faster,
with less resource

10. Platforms power the core
of your business

11. EXAMPLE:
UBER

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

13. Example: Amazon
Echo

14. PLATFORMS & BI-MODAL IT

15. “Gartner's Recipe For Disaster”
- Jason Bloomberg / Forbes
“This is akin to adding lipstick
to the pig.”
- Simon Wardley, CSC
“Gartner’s bimodal IT considered
Harmful”
- Phil Wainewright / Diginomica

16. True if you are doing it wrong…

17. But this is not about separation
It’s about going from 1-1 to 1-N (and N-N)

18. 1-1 IT
Need for software innovation drives deep integrations
InternalSystems
Applications

19. 1-N IT
Governance and APIs create reusable anchor points

20. N-N IT
Common governance rules can apply to APIs from anywhere

21. Platform value is “co-creation” of value
between providers and consumers
(buyers & sellers)
(you & partners / customers)
(mode 1 & mode 2)

23. SO: HOW DO WE SUCCEED?

24. THREE KEYS

25. “Jeff Bezos Moment”
(thank you @frankarr)
)

26. CHAPTER 1: AUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS

28. But ... adoption is slow …

29. #1: FOCUS ON VALUE

30. EXAMPLE:
MAPS CREDIT UNION
Loren Paulson, APIStrat, 2015

31. EXAMPLE:
MID-SIZED ECOMMERCE
COMPANY

32. A Map of Expectations
Expected
Unexpected
DesirableUndesirable
Thor Mitchel, 2014

33. 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?

34. Key Strategy
Deliver value one API and one
use-case at a time

35. CHAPTER 2: FOCUSING ON THE
CHOSEN

37. More adoption … but still 50%
off target

38. #2: OPTIMIZE FOR ACCESSIBILITY AND
UTILITY

39. We have great developer
experience … what happened?

40. Warning: Blasphemy Alert

41. Developer Experience is
Overrated

42. 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?

43. EXAMPLE:
SIMILAR WEB
Noahm Schwartz, APIStrat, 2015

44. EXAMPLE:
FITBIT
Jeremiah Lee, San Francisco, 2016

45. EXAMPLE:
CRUNCHBASE
Nicolas Greenie, San Francisco, 2015

46. Key Strategy
The API is not the key thing – the
value is the key thing

47. CHAPTER 3: IN FULL FLIGHT

48. API Demand is up – multiple teams
are using them: powering core
business
Woho!!

49. But...

50. Hairy Panic!

51. #3: DIVIDE AND CONQUER

52. 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?

53. Vicious Circle
Virtuous Cycle

54. Key Strategy
N-N >>>>> 1-N

55. Governance + Support
e.g. tools, platforms, guides, design sages

56. CHAPTER 4: IMPACT!

57. • Very hard work
• Unglamorous
• It is not a big bang (big bet)
• People get upset at rules and
restrictions
• But … hugely rewarding

58. Recommendation:
Focus on Business(es) enabled (number,
revenue)

59. TAKE AWAYS

60. Your company NEEDS your
platform strategy to succeed

61. Even if you have a “Bezos
Moment” – Keep focused on the
value you are delivering piece by
piece

62. Try to empower both API
creation and usage

63. BACK AT THE OFFICE…

64. A commitment…

65. 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

66. API Owners Manual
http://www.3scale.net
@njyx @3scale
http://bit.ly/APIOwners

67. 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