Building a Developer Platform

Transcript

1. BUILDING A DEVELOPER PLATFORM BRENDAN NEE
2. CITY PLANNING & TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
3. DEVELOPER Maps Open Data Javascript Node.js Python Front End Back End Developer Platforms
4. AUTOMATIC
5. BLINKTAG.COM
7. YOU HAVE AN API YOU WANT DEVELOPERS TO USE IT
8. ITS MORE THAN AN API ▸ Documentation ▸ Developer Website ▸ Libraries / SDKs ▸ Example Applications ▸ Developer Tools ▸ Tutorials ▸ App Gallery ▸ Developer Support ▸ Developer Notifications
9. Publicity Developer Tools Useful Apps Recruitment BENEFITS OF A GOOD DEVELOPER PLATFORM Wider Reach Product Position
10. DOCUMENTATION
11. TEXT DOCUMENTATION ▸ Editability ▸ Versioning ▸ Single page, for easy search ▸ New users and existing users ▸ When in doubt, check what other good developer platforms use
13. DEVELOPER WEBSITE
14. developer.yoursite.com
15. Documentation Developer Tools App Gallery Intro Developer Support Example Apps DEVELOPER WEBSITE Libraries Tutorials
16. TEXT DEVELOPER WEBSITE ▸ Keep it simple, not fancy ▸ Focus on content ▸ Launch sooner rather than later
17. AVOID UNNECESSARY FENCES
18. LIBRARIES / SDKS
19. OFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL
20. TO COPY OTHERS IS NECESSARY, BUT TO COPY ONESELF IS PATHETIC. Pablo Picasso TEXT
21. 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
22. USE THE LIBRARY IN YOUR CORE APP.
23. EXAMPLE APPS
24. OFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL
25. DEVELOPER TOOLS
26. 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
27. TEXT ADDITIONAL DEVELOPER TOOLS ▸ oAuth redirect URL generator ▸ Webhook/Websocket logs ▸ Application state / event simulator ▸ API playground
28. TUTORIALS
29. 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
30. TEXT TUTORIALS ▸ Encourage developer feedback ▸ Push updates to the tutorial often ▸ Tutorials can help new team members, non-technical team members, partner organizations
31. APP GALLERY
32. TEXT APP GALLERY ▸ Expose useful 3rd party integrations of your service ▸ Determine API capabilities ▸ See novel uses of your API ▸ Developer recognition
33. TEXT APP GALLERY PROMOTION ▸ Web based ▸ Integrated into your core app ▸ Highlight a new app in each developer newsletter ▸ Promote on developer social media
34. DEVELOPER SUPPORT
35. TEXT DEVELOPER SUPPORT ▸ developer@yourcompany.com ▸ Assign a specific person to be responsible ▸ Zendesk ▸ Accept pull requests ▸ Respond quickly, even if you won’t have an answer right away
36. MOST COMMON DEVELOPER QUESTIONS UPDATE DOCUMENTATION CREATE TOOLS SAMPLE APPS
37. 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
38. DEVELOPER NOTIFICATIONS
39. TEXT DEVELOPER NOTIFICATIONS ▸ API changes ▸ Downtime ▸ New features/endpoints ▸ Required updates ▸ Example apps ▸ Featured apps
40. 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 developer@yoursite.com
41. DEVELOPER PLATFORM RECAP ▸ Documentation ▸ Developer Website ▸ Libraries ▸ Example Applications ▸ Developer Tools ▸ Tutorials ▸ App Gallery ▸ Developer Support ▸ Developer Notifications
42. BRENDAN NEE QUESTIONS @BRENDANNEE