Sam Ramji and Brian Mulloy

1. How to Segment Developers for
your API Strategy
8.11.11 @ 11:05 PST
VOIP or Dial-in (see chat)
groups.google.com/group/api-craft
Sam Ramji @sramji
Brian Mulloy @landlessness

2. A moment of silence

4. He cared about the human experience.

5. Okay.

6. On with the rest of our lives.

7. How to Segment Developers for
your API Strategy
8.11.11 @ 11:05 PST
VOIP or Dial-in (see chat)
Sam Ramji @sramji
Brian Mulloy @landlessness

8. Your hosts

9. @landlessness @sramji

10. API Workshop Webinar Series
(videos & slides at http://blog.apigee.com/taglist/webinar)
Mapping out your API Strategy
Pragmatic REST: API Design Fu
10 Patterns in Successful API Programs
What to Measure: API Analytics
Is your API Naked? API Tech & Operations
Does your API need PCI? (Compliance)
Developers Hate Marketing: Driving API Adoption
OAuth: The Big Picture
“Boss, we need an API”
Your API is not a website!
How to Segment Developers for your API Strategy

11. Topics
why segmentation?
how many developers are there?
how can you classify them?
how can you reach them?
examples

12. why segmentation?
Why do you care about developers?

13. why segmentation?
Because they are your new channel

14. 20th Century: Packaged Goods
Producer Retail Store Consumer
21st Century: Internet Services
Provider Developer App Consumer

15. why segmentation?
Would you have sold to Nordstrom
the same way you sold to Wal-Mart?

16. why segmentation?
Of course not.
They’re different.

17. why segmentation?
So are developers.

18. why segmentation?
“We’re targeting
everybody”

20. why segmentation?
You don’t have unlimited resources.

21. why segmentation?

22. how many developers are there?

23. how many developers are there?
First, how do we define a developer?

24. de·vel·op·er noun (də-ve-lə-pər)
: one that develops: as a: a chemical used to develop
exposed photographic materials b: a person who develops
real estate c: a person or company that develops computer
software
Examples of DEVELOPER
<the developer of software that is used the world over>
First Known Use of DEVELOPER
1796
Related to DEVELOPER
Synonyms: contriver, designer, inventor, deviser,
formulator, innovator, introducer, originator

25. how many developers are there?
Definitions I’ve heard:
Enterprise software company
Games company
Device manufacturer
Independent contractor
News/media company
Advertising agency
Hobbyist
Individual coder
Startup software company
Alpha geek

26. how many developers are there?
Let’s start by calling an individual human a
coder.

27. how many developers are there?
A coder is located in a larger organizational context.
Each exhibits similar behavior and technology
adoption patterns.

28. how many developers are there?
The term "long-tail" is inappropriately applied as a
single group.
What businesses should be thinking about is
whether they're working with
known companies
or
unknown coders

29. how many developers are there?
In many cases building for the unknown coder will
help you with your business efforts
with known companies
since unknown coders often work there

30. how many developers are there?
Facebook
Twitter
Mobile
Ruby
Flash
Python
.NET
VB
ASP.NET
J2EE
JSP
Javascript
PHP
0 10 20 30 40
Developers in 100,000s

31. how many developers are there?

32. how many developers are there?

33. how many developers are there?

34. how can you classify them?
Horizontal
Vertical
Tribal Modal

35. how can you classify them?

36. how can you classify them?
Horizontally
LARGE ECOSYSTEM PLAYERS
LARGE ENTERPRISES
ISV
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
SMB | SMALL ENTERPRISE
SAAS
SOFTWARE STARTUPS
HOBBYIST |OPPORTUNIST

37. Vertically
SOCIAL MEDIA
MOBILE
RETAIL
DIGITAL MEDIA
PUBLISHING
how can you classify them?
FINANCIAL SERVICES
HOSPITALITY
LOGISTICS
AIRLINES
TELECOMMUNICATIONS

38. how can you classify them?
Modally
Public
Open Closed
Private

39. how can you classify them?
Tribally
C#.net
jQuery CoffeeScript
SproutCore
dojo
Ruby JavaScript
Heroku Rails
HTML5 backbone.js
Sencha Node.js
iOS Android
AWS
PHP
Java Scala

40. how can you reach them?

41. how can you reach them?
No one size fits all, but…
Open is smart because it accelerates innovation.
Public should make it easy to "taste" the value
creating demand from coders to jump through hoops
in order to use the super-tasty Private functionality.

42. how can you reach them?
Incentives that match the vertical and horizontal
coordinates you’re targeting

43. how can you reach them?
Horizontally
LARGE ECOSYSTEM PLAYERS PAY THEM
MEDIUM & LARGE ENTERPRISE SHOW THEM OPPORTUNITY
ISV BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS SHOW CUSTOMER DEMAND
SMB | SMALL ENTERPRISE MICROSOFT ECOSYSTEM
SAAS EFFICIENCY
SOFTWARE STARTUPS FREE AND COOL
HOBBYIST |OPPORTUNIST FREE

44. how can you reach them?
Vertically
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIGITAL MEDIA
SOCIAL MEDIA
HOSPITALITY
PUBLISHING
LOGISTICS
AIRLINES
MOBILE
RETAIL
Be at meetups and conferences that coders in
the vertical already go to. Have a relevant offer.

45. how can you reach them?
Modally
Public
PUBLISH YOUR API
ESTABLISH A CONTEST
ADVERTISE ON CODER SITES
Open Closed
EVANGELIZE WITHIN YOUR ADVERTISE YOUR
PARTNERS’ DEVELOPMENT TEAMS BUSINESS MODEL
Private

46. how can you reach them?
Tribally
C#
jQuery CoffeeScript
SproutCore
Formal
FORUMS
INDUSTRY EVENTS
dojo EXISTING COMMUNITIES
Ruby JavaScript
HTML backbone.js
Heroku Rails 5
Informal
MEETUPS, HACKATHONS Sencha TWITTER Node.js
iOS BEER AND COFFEE
INSIDE YOUR COMPANY?
STACKOVERFLOW
Android
HACKERNEWS
AWS
PHP
Java Scala
Offline Online

47. Example: Netflix
The Netflix (Medium Enterprise horizontal, Digital Media vertical)
API (Public) gives access to any coder who wants to improve the Netflix
movie browsing & recommendation experience (Open) to improve
utilization and reduce churn… but Netflix restricts access to its
Streaming Video API (Private) to known partners in order to enforce
licensing and consumer experience quality standards. Once a partner
has signed, any coder who works for that partner (Open) can access the
Private API to build new cool prototypes and innovate on the
experience. To gain business advantage, Netflix created a contest on the
Open API, and to sustain it they enabled partners’ engineering teams to
build and evangelize new applications of the API.

48. Example: Twitter
The Twitter (Large Ecosystems horizontal, Social vertical)
API (Public) gives access to any coder who wants to create apps that
connect to the Twitter social network (Open) to increase engagement…
but Twitter provides increased access (Private) to known partners in
order to drive revenue. Once a partner has signed, any coder who works
for that partner (Open) can access the Public API with increased access
(higher rate limits) to build apps that have monetization potential. To
gain adoption, Twitter encouraged a huge ecosystem of 3rd party apps ,
and to sustain it they enabled partners’ engineering teams increased
levels of access to meet their higher levels of demand.

49. final thought

50. THANK YOU
Questions and ideas to:
@sramji
@landlessness
groups.google.com/group/api-craft