This month we are celebrating the one year anniversary of our partnership with Apigee. One year in, after we worked on more than 20 developer portals, we are also celebrating that we successfully specialised our Drupal company on API documentation.
After a lot of reading and thinking about developer portals, research into API documentation components and over 10 API events, I’ve gained a few new perspectives on API documentation that I think could be valuable for API architects and product owners. I synthesized the ideas and frameworks we developed in a presentation for Apigee’s API forum (Paris, Amsterdam, and London) and for the London APIdays. I felt my presentation at the API forum in Amsterdam was the best paced, and the most complete, that is why I’ve published it on Youtube.
Video recording:
In my talk (presented at Apigee’s API Tech Forum in Amsterdam on November 10, 2016), I explore 7 thought frameworks that will help you build better Developer Portals for your APIs:
The importance of Developer Portals
Portals should drive adoption and reduce support costs: without proper documentation, an API team will spend countless hours on workshops, trainings and support. Developer portals are also a trust signal.
Developer Portal Stakeholders
Sales, Product, Marketing and Support areas should be in balance. I discuss the role of Developer evangelists and API documentarians.
The Developer’s Journey
A developer portal can help creating viral loops and can turn consumers into product advocates. I discuss the function of marketing, try out areas, tutorials, conceptual documentation and integration galleries.
The site owner’s jobs to be done
A developer portal helps you to inspire, educate and authorise developers.
Types of Portal architecture
What are the architectural API archetypes? What are their characteristics?
Technology choice
What choices are there to be made. I highlight API specification formats, documentation formats, and Portal technology.
Conclusion and Learn more
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