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Building a Developer Platform

Building a Developer Platform

Brendan Nee

October 14, 2016
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  1. ITS MORE THAN AN API ▸ Documentation ▸ Developer Website

    ▸ Libraries / SDKs ▸ Example Applications ▸ Developer Tools ▸ Tutorials ▸ App Gallery ▸ Developer Support ▸ Developer Notifications
  2. Publicity Developer Tools Useful Apps Recruitment BENEFITS OF A GOOD

    DEVELOPER PLATFORM Wider Reach Product Position
  3. TEXT DOCUMENTATION ▸ Editability ▸ Versioning ▸ Single page, for

    easy search ▸ New users and existing users ▸ When in doubt, check what other good developer platforms use
  4. TEXT DEVELOPER WEBSITE ▸ Keep it simple, not fancy ▸

    Focus on content ▸ Launch sooner rather than later
  5. TEXT LIBRARIES - DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL ▸ Take best

    practices from an existing library that is similar ▸ Use the same format for documentation and examples
  6. TEXT DEVELOPER APPLICATION MANAGEMENT ▸ Support a developer owning multiple

    apps ▸ Support separate apps for staging and production ▸ API key and oAuth client/secret management ▸ App info: name, URL, oAuth redirect URL, category ▸ Scopes and permissions ▸ Webhook URL
  7. TEXT ADDITIONAL DEVELOPER TOOLS ▸ oAuth redirect URL generator ▸

    Webhook/Websocket logs ▸ Application state / event simulator ▸ API playground
  8. TEXT TYPES OF TUTORIALS ▸ “Hello World” ▸ Guide to

    building one of your sample apps ▸ Example of the most common use case ▸ Guide to a particularly tricky aspect of your service ▸ Tutorials in different popular languages and frameworks
  9. TEXT TUTORIALS ▸ Encourage developer feedback ▸ Push updates to

    the tutorial often ▸ Tutorials can help new team members, non-technical team members, partner organizations
  10. TEXT APP GALLERY ▸ Expose useful 3rd party integrations of

    your service ▸ Determine API capabilities ▸ See novel uses of your API ▸ Developer recognition
  11. TEXT APP GALLERY PROMOTION ▸ Web based ▸ Integrated into

    your core app ▸ Highlight a new app in each developer newsletter ▸ Promote on developer social media
  12. TEXT DEVELOPER SUPPORT ▸ [email protected] ▸ Assign a specific person

    to be responsible ▸ Zendesk ▸ Accept pull requests ▸ Respond quickly, even if you won’t have an answer right away
  13. TEXT FEATURE REQUESTS ▸ Developer support lead should be a

    developer advocate ▸ Compile most common feature requests ▸ Advocate to team why these are needed ▸ Respond to developers that their requests have been noted ▸ Allow interested 3rd parties to beta test new feature to get feedback
  14. TEXT DEVELOPER NOTIFICATIONS ▸ API changes ▸ Downtime ▸ New

    features/endpoints ▸ Required updates ▸ Example apps ▸ Featured apps
  15. TEXT DEVELOPER NOTIFICATION EMAILS ▸ Auto-subscribe developers ▸ Allow unsubscribe

    ▸ Don’t use for marketing purposes ▸ Keep email format simple ▸ Publish on developer blog as well ▸ Reply address [email protected]
  16. DEVELOPER PLATFORM RECAP ▸ Documentation ▸ Developer Website ▸ Libraries

    ▸ Example Applications ▸ Developer Tools ▸ Tutorials ▸ App Gallery ▸ Developer Support ▸ Developer Notifications