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VICTOR OSIMITZSLICE TECHNOLOGIESMAY 2015

Lessons from “API-Second” Development

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Two API Strategies

There is a lot of thought leadership around API-first development, but do the same rules apply

for API-second companies?

VS

oAPI IS CORE TO THESE COMPANIES’ STRATEGY FROM THE START

oFUNDAMENTALLY ORGANIZED TO EMPOWER DEVELOPERS

oCHALLENGE: DEVELOP A VALUABLE CORE TECHNOLOGY UNDERNEATH A

WELL-DESIGNED API

oTHESE COMPANIES ALREADY HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT AND ARE

INTERESTED IN GROWING THROUGH API PARTNERSHIPS

oDIFFERENT SET OF TECHNICAL, PRODUCT, AND BUSINESS

CHALLENGES

oCHALLENGE: DEVELOP AN INTUITIVE, COMPELLING API ON TOP OF A

LEGACY CODE BASE AND TECHNOLOGY STACK

API-FIRST DEVELOPMENT API-SECOND DEVELOPMENT

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Slice Is An API-Second CompanySLICE: YOUR SMART SHOPPING ASSISTANT

Track shipments automatically

Store shopping receipts

Monitor your spending

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2

3

Item level data extracted from email receipts

Founded in 2010, built out the consumer apps and back-end, started work on public

API in 2013

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Developers Led Us to API StrategyEBAY: SELL YOUR STUFF

Track shipments automatically

Store shopping receipts

Monitor your spending

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3

oBy 2013, other companies were inquiring about using our technology

oCollaboration with eBay: Sell your Stuff

oWe decided to build a public API to enable more developers to access

purchase histories

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API-First vs. API-SecondWHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

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User FocusKEY DIFFERENCES

API-FIRST

API as product: Developers are the customers, API is the UI, DX is the UX.

API-SECOND

API as by-product: API is often seen as a functional, un-sexy data pipeline for internal consumption.

The core technology is the differentiator, API only affects developers, not decision makers.

FOOD FOR THOUGHTShould you strive to delight our API consumers?

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Product FocusKEY DIFFERENCES

API-FIRST

Openness and robustness are deeply ingrained into API companies’ products and culture.

APIs succeed in part by enabling a broad spectrum of use cases.

API-SECOND

Legacy infrastructure often built to a specific use case, technical debt most likely to be found in the API layer.

Tendency to be cautious about making the API available to any developer, due to perceived or actual brittleness.

API value prop may be unclear next to an existing product.

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Go-to-Market FocusKEY DIFFERENCES

API-FIRST

Freedom breeds creativity and new market possibilities that an existing company may never have imagined.

API-SECOND

Without an open strategy from the start, there may not be a consensus on what is core IP and must be protected, and what can be open.

There is likely to be a temptation to hide everything behind NDAs and contracts. Resist this temptation!

FOOD FOR THOUGHTShould you allow third parties to build products that compete with your core product?

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Strategic QuestionsHOW DO YOU GET STARTED?

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Use the A-P-E FrameworkSET YOUR A-P-E GOALS

What to

ACHIEVE

What to

PROTECT

What to

ENABLE

API strategies require absolute clarity on what you want to achieve andhow you are going to achieve it.

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What Do You Want to Achieve?WHAT TO THINK ABOUT

Setting data as our primary goal enabled us to offer our API completely free in many cases, and far below our competitors’ prices for larger integrations.

OUR EXPERIENCE

Diversified revenue stream?

New user acquisition?

What else?

Raw datacollection

?

Brand awareness/ recruitment

channel?

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What Do You Want to Protect?WHAT TO THINK ABOUT

Figure out what your core asset is, and protect it in a black box. But keep your API completely transparent.

PROTECT CORE ASSETS ONLY

API documentation is hidden behind a login

Manual approvals are required for API access

You worry somebody willreverse-engineer your technology

You worry every time adeveloper signs up

If any of these are true, you haven’t thought enough about what to Protect…

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What Do You Want to Enable?WHAT TO THINK ABOUT

Generally, you should allow as many use cases as you can, but answering this ahead of time will help you design your API for the key cases you want to Enable.

KEY USE CASES

MASH-UPS

PRODUCTINTEGRATIONS

PLATFORMADAPTATIONS

COMPETITORACCESS

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Case Study :: Slice API

Answering the A-P-E questions makes difficult decisions easy:Should we allow competing product on our API? How should we price it? How should we

protect API documentation?

oRAW DATA: MORE INBOXES FROM MORE

DIVERSE SOURCES

oREVENUE: TO COVER OUR COSTS, BUT NOT TO SERVE

AS A PROFIT CENTER

ACHIEVE PROTECT ENABLE

oOUR PARSING TECHNOLOGY

REMAINS A BLACK BOX. THE API

EXPOSES A SIMPLE OBJECT MODEL BUT REVEALS NOTHING ABOUT OUR CORE

TECHNOLOGY.

oWE CAN BE PERFECTLY OPEN ABOUT OUR API

BECAUSE THERE’S NO WAY TO REVERSE-ENGINEER OUR CORE TECHNOLOGY FROM

THE API.

oANY EXPERIENCE THAT LEVERAGES PURCHASE AND SHIPMENT DATA.

oUSE CASES AS DIVERSE AS GONE!,

STUFF BY EBAY, TROV, IFTTT,

THEFIND, FINANCIAL SERVICES, ETC., AND WE TRY TO SAY YES

TO EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO USE OUR

API.

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Thank you!api@slice.com

@slicedev