The API Product Mindset

APIs are what makes it possible for software to talk to software. By definition, they’re a technology that connects systems. For example, using APIs to connect a point-of-sale system to a customer relationship management system can help retailers keep track of critical transactional data, and tie that data back to the correct customer account.

This connection enables retailers to do things like suggest new purchases based on products you’ve already bought. According to Apigee Compass, Google’s enterprise digital maturity assessment tool, 57 percent of respondents characterize APIs as systems integration technology.

But APIs fulfill a much higher purpose within the enterprise. They're potent interfaces that enable developers—inside and outside of an organization—to leverage data, functions, and applications to build entirely new products and services.

APIs are how modern businesses express themselves via software—making it possible for companies to rapidly expand into new contexts and be readily prepared to adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of their customers.

In other words, APIs shouldn’t be treated as a back-office technical detail—they’re both products for the developers who build today’s connected customer experiences and the mechanisms through which value is increasingly exchanged in modern economies.

Our new eBook, The API Product Mindset, was created to give those responsible for API programs the clear and strategic guidance and tools they need to help establish an API product mindset across an entire organization. The eBook discusses:

• the three core pillars of the API product mindset
• how to design APIs for long-term value at scale and evolve them over time to meet changing customer wants and needs
• The specific tenets of product management for APIs, including the people, processes, and technologies required to operationalize the API product mindset