How to Design and Publish API Products that Your Customers & Partners Actually Want, Allan Knabe, API Design Owner at KONE

1. How to design and publish API products that
your customers and partners actually want
ALLAN KNABE, KONE API DESIGN OWNER

2. KONE today
 KONE is a global leader in the elevator and
escalator industry. We are here to make cities
better places to live
 We provide value for our customers at every step
of the way for the entire lifespan of a building
 We offer innovative and sustainable new
equipment solutions, ensure the safety and
availability of equipment in operation and offer
modernization solutions for aging equipment
 Founded in Finland in 1910
 Over 55,000 employees
 Over 450,000 customers
 Net sales EUR 9 billion in 2018
 Listed on the NASDAQ Helsinki since 1967

3. “Every part of the UK
economy and our lives
has been digitised –
from how we shop and
entertain ourselves to
the way we travel to
work and manage our
health” Ed Vaizey |
Minister of State for
Culture & the Digital
Economy, UK

4. APIs are considered a pivotal part of any
digital transformation effort

5. Classic mistakes
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1. Identify core assets in your organization
2. Expose these as APIs
3. Build a developer portal
4. Wait for developers to arrive…
…You’ll be waiting a long time!

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 Expose the value
– You need to expose the value you can bring, not just things.
 Start with the why, not the what
– Instead of looking at what things your organization has, look at the mission it
has set itself and ask how you can contribute to that.
 What is the Value Proposition?
– For whom does the API bring value? What is the target customer segment?
What are the business goals?
 Use Products
– Products are a great vehicle for delivering value to you customers, use them for
you APIs too.
Manage your API
as a Product
Seek the value first

7. Mulesoft - 2019
“In order to continuously
deliver software that is
shaped by user feedback, it
is better to think of the
resulting solution as a long-
living product than a time-
and budget-bounded
project.”

8. Caution: This may be a challenge.
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9. Hire an API Product Manager
 Recommendation from Gartner
– https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3579024 Application leaders
responsible for APIs and integration must support project teams, but
treating APIs as products with an accompanying product life cycle
increases the chances of digital business success. Creating the role
of API product manager is key to managing this project/product
dichotomy.
 Train them up
– It’s difficult (impossible?) to find a dedicated API Product
Management course. It’s probably best to split and do dedicated API
training in addition to general Product Management training.
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10. Example: Use the Product Vision Board to
communicate with your stakeholders
HTTPS://WWW.ROMANPICHLER.COM/

11. https://www.apiopscycles.com/
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12. What about that killer API you promised your
CEO?
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13. Start with your mission and work forwards:
“Our Mission is to improve the flow of urban life”

14. Making cities better places to
live
 Every day, around 200,000 people move into cities
across the globe. At KONE, our mission is to improve
the flow of urban life. We understand People Flow in
and between buildings, and we aim to make people’s
journeys safe, convenient and reliable. Our vision is
to deliver the best People Flow® experience, by
providing Ease, Effectiveness and Experiences to
users and customers over the full life-cycle of the
buildings. Our strategy guides us towards our vision.
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15. KONE API Services
Vision for KONE API Services: constantly growing library
of KONE APIs.
24/7 Connected
Services data into your
BMS
KONE Advanced
People Flow solutions,
e.g. Residential Flow
KONE
Partner Ecosystem
solutions
e.g. Indoor.Ninja
Partner
Elevator calling
features in your own
building app
Customer
CONNECTED EQUIPMENT
KONE operational
data into your
BMS or IT system
KONE IT Systems
KONE DIGITAL PLATFORM
Depending on existing elevator control system version additional control system upgrade may be required.
Equipment compatibility with the KONE API Service, as well as the service pricing, is subject to validation by KONE.

16. You have API ideas,
should you start
developing
immediately?

17. No!
 Try first to get to product market fit
– You don’t yet have a product, you have an idea for a product
 Use existing startup tools:
– The https://leanstack.com/ by Ash Maurya
– Venture Design Template by Alex Cowan
 Customer Co-Creation
– We’re currently co-creating with a major airport via Futurice
– Validating your assumptions, or not, as the case may be.
 Create a “mock”
– Create an API Contract, prefill it with customer data (postman) and
then visit them: “Hey, how does this look to you?”
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18. Hands up!
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19. Keep hands up if: The API Program you are
working on already has a developer portal?
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20. Put hands up if: Your API Program plans to
build one in the near future?
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21. Developer Portals
 Chances are you either already have an API portal or are
thinking of building one.
 You’ll be thinking about the developer, making sure that the UX /
DX is sweet | rad | cool.
 You’re thinking about running a bunch of hackathons to get
developers engaged in your portal.
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22. But is the developer really your customer?
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23. Developer Portals
 Is the developer actually the user of the API Product but not the
customer?
 What did you enter into the “Target Group” box on the Product
Vision Board? What are the business goals for your API
Product?
 Are your customers actually business people, partner
management, product managers etc?
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25. Developer Portals
 Lean on your API Products
– API Products come with features, marketing text, images, videos etc.
use these to describe what your digital product does, use the word
“API” less.
 Developers are still very important users
– You should still strive for a great DX, but understand that a lot of
developers a paid to come and use your APIs by their companies.
 Seamlessly transition from a business experience into a
developer experience
– This is our work in progress…
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26. Any Questions?
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