Get to Know Your User for a Better API

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Get to know your user for a better API | @ashmchang

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Ashley Chang Product @ ReadMe @ashmchang | @ashmchang

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The API Universe | @ashmchang

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Why are we here? | @ashmchang

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| @ashmchang

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The average company spends 3-4 weeks writing & editing documentation. | @ashmchang

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Documentation shouldn’t be so hard. | @ashmchang

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Let’s ﬁx the API Design Process | @ashmchang

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This Talk 1. What’s a good API? 2. How we can change the API process to make our APIs better | @ashmchang

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1. What’s the goal of an API? | @ashmchang

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Communicate | @ashmchang

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A good API is empathetic to the people using it | @ashmchang

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Example: Slack | @ashmchang

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Example: Star Wars API | @ashmchang

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✨ MAGIC ✨ | @ashmchang

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Example: Clearbit | @ashmchang

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People want to use APIs (& things in general) that are easy to use. | @ashmchang

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There are options Thanks, ProgrammableWeb! | @ashmchang

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Your docs are your UI | @ashmchang

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Your docs are your UI Your API is your UI | @ashmchang

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2. How we can change the process to make our APIs better | @ashmchang

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Creating an API looks something like... 1) Users request an API 2) You decide its worth engineering time to make an API (but not that much time) 3) Find the simplest way to expose the necessary endpoints 4) Write some docs 5) ! ! ! | @ashmchang

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Product > API > Users | @ashmchang

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| @ashmchang

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Scaling your API → API users increase → Types of users on your API increases → They need more help Instead of an easy win, time is sucked into supporting partners on your API | @ashmchang

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| @ashmchang

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Users > API <> Docs | @ashmchang

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User Centered API Design | @ashmchang

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User Centered Design Design based on an understanding of users, tasks, & environments | @ashmchang

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Example: Foursquare | @ashmchang

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Let’s take this for a spin → Start by getting to know our user → Expose endpoints in a way that makes sense for them → More time up front, less time writing docs & supporting users later | @ashmchang

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How to get to know your users 1) Talk to users 2) Make it usable 3) Make it stick | @ashmchang

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Why talk to users → Perspective. How you feel might not be how other people feel. → Reﬁne the problem. A good solution comes from a clear understanding of what the problem is. → Insight. What workarounds have people created? How successful is your solution? Users are experts on the problem, not the solution | @ashmchang

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Interview Plan → Goal: What are you trying to learn about? → Target Audience: Deﬁne your target audience → Hypothesis on the Audience’s Goal: How & why the audience is using your API. → 5 questions: These should evaluate if your hypothesis is right or wrong. They are starter questions. | @ashmchang

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Tips → Record it, if possible (take good notes if not) → Make participants feel comfortable → Use active listening techniques to focus their thoughts without leading → Pay attention to body language → Let it be organic | @ashmchang

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Reaching People → Talk to inbound people → Send out emails → Use pop-up options in the service → Rewards → Set up a qualifying survey | @ashmchang

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Starter questions → How did you ﬁnd our API? → What do you do at [their company]? → Who from your team spends the most time with our API? → Did you already use something that does the same thing? → Can you tell me about a speciﬁc time our API has helped your team? | @ashmchang

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Why | @ashmchang

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Goals You want to understand: → motivations → workﬂow → expectations (what do they see as a competitor) → their decision making power | @ashmchang

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Make your research usable Synthesize it into something → Personas → Jobs to be done (JTBD) | @ashmchang

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Make it stick → Make sure your persona/JTBD is referenced in every step of building your API → Try to see your API and docs from the user’s perspective → Bring actual users back in for every step of the process! | @ashmchang

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In Summary → Get to know your user before you start building your API → Release endpoints, and APIs, that make sense for the way they will use it → Write fewer docs! → Win developer ! and build a strong dev community | @ashmchang