apidays London 2023 - When to soar and when to dive, Claire Barrett, APIsFirst

apidays London 2023 - APIs for Smarter Platforms and Business Processes
September 13 & 14, 2023

When to soar and when to dive: the practicalities of keeping strategy and API execution in balance
Claire Barrett, Director at APIsFirst and Co-lead of Women In APIs

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Transcript

1. When to soar and when to dive The practicalities of keeping strategy and API execution in balance September 2023
2. Helping people and teams realise the full potential of APIs >50k hours consulting and being consulted to on IT-enabled strategy and execution Keeping it human Director, APIsFirst www.linkedin.com/in/claire-global Co-founder, The API Collective www.theapicollective.com Global lead for Women In APIs apidays.global/initiatives-women-in-apis
3. Topics Current strategic climate for APIs How it’s playing out for 3 scenarios • What it feels like from an API perspective • Where to focus: zoomed out vs close-up What works… from a people perspective
4. 90% of C-level and senior leaders say their organizations have pursued at least one large-scale digital transformation in the past two years. McKinsey 2022
5. 3 scenarios (fictional) • Ship building • Major surgery • Social activism
6. Scenario 1 Ship building Complex legacy backend overhaul and rewiring Already in year 2+ API investment focus: • new/better integration • composability and reuse • API discoverability, management and governance Execution focus. Photograph from www.pexels.com
7. What it feels like on the ground What’s going well Growing, centralised API portfolio API standards and expectations Architectural context for APIs API education - at least in principle Response to open standards etc What needs attention “Tech’s got it covered.” API sprawl API governance bottleneck/s API portfolio risk profile Motivation for (re)use of others’ APIs APIs-as-products mindset
8. “We’re a digital company” Operating model change from Project to Product API investment focus: • Data and API products • API monetisation • New digital products Emphasis on long-running teams; nimble ways of working Scenario 2 Major surgery Photograph from www.pexels.com
9. What it feels like on the ground What’s going well Strategic / executive buy-in for digitalisation Opportunities for earlier and more bluesky API-related thinking Tech sector hires bringing in new cultural norms and expectations What needs attention Engineers-as-customers API-related processes in adjacent functions Success cases beyond customer pain points E2E support models for digital products
10. Scenario 3 Social activism Leadership direction towards social responsibilities / ESG API investments focus: • Open source / community platforms • Ethical and green software • Public APIs Talent and connection to generational influences Photograph from www.pexels.com
11. What it feels like on the ground What’s going well Talent attraction and retention Investors and customers due to visibility in ESG External-facing APIs getting use by a lot by conscious API consumers What’s needing attention Avoiding unintentional greenwashing Workforce and skills in ESG ‘angles’ and use cases Measurement systems that match the API design and deployment promise API product management mindset and discipline
12. Some or all of these may be playing out right now
13. Takeaways Strategic context is in flux People are trying to make sense of it There are many practical ways to move forward…if you stay balanced