Designing Web APIs

Chapter 10. Developer Programs

So, you’ve built the basic resources developers will need to use your API or platform—are you done yet? Probably not. As we discussed in Chapter 8, driving developers through the funnel and helping them to become aware, proficient, engaged, and successful using your API is an ongoing process. Even well-adopted APIs, such as the most commonly used ones provided by Amazon and Google, require ongoing activity by their developer relations teams. Developer programs are the heart and soul of everyday developer relations and ecosystem building for an API.

Defining Your Developer Programs

Developer programs are activities that help and drive developers of all sizes to build solutions and integrate with your API. Most companies offer multiple developer programs through their developer relations and marketing teams. To define the developer programs that you need to run, you need to perform a breadth and depth analysis.

Breadth and Depth Analysis

Most developer ecosystems are composed of a few big players and a lot of midsize and small players, as illustrated in Figure 10-1. Consider the following about the mobile ecosystem: you have a few big mobile app developers—Uber, Lyft, Facebook, Supercell, and so forth—as well as many, many other app developers working in smaller companies building mobile apps.

Figure 10-1. Developer tiers

Developers (and hence developer ...