Why is it essential to consider Developer Experience (DX) in your API strategy?

There are thousands of APIs available. To stand out from the competition, it is critical to provide good attention to developers and a better experience when using APIs.

Number of APIs cataloged in ProgrammableWeb

In the report Status of APIs 2019 that Sensedia prepared together with PwC, +57% of large companies use APIs to expand the value offer of products and services, foster innovation or increase the number of integrated partners.

This data reinforces that APIs are not just a matter of technology, but key enablers of new digital businesses.

Expected benefits with APIs

In this same report, we also identified that the 3 main criteria to want to consume an API are:

• Performance / Availability (73%)

• Ease of Use (63%)

• Security (61%)

This reinforces that there's no point in creating good APIs if developers don't use them, because they find the documentation and onboarding too complicated, or they don't get answers from support or any feedbacks. Taking care of the Developer Experience is essential for the success of your API strategies. “We want to treat the experience of our APIs as Apple treats the experience of its products.” - David Ruiz, Paraná Banco

While DX is vital to the success of API-based businesses, 32% of companies with surveyed APIs are making no effort in developer engagement.

Developer Engagement Efforts (External / Internal)

What if it's just internal APIs?

Even if they are just internal APIs, if they provide a bad experience, there will be a waste of time and resources, since your developers will try to rebuild components so they don't need to use these APIs or they will exhaust themselves trying to understand how to use them properly.

APIs that have an excellent DX prevent rework and repetitive tasks, generate more productivity, and accelerate time-to-market.

So why don't companies take care of the Developer Experience?

“Companies that take APIs seriously should care about developer experience.” - Amit Jotwani, Amazon

The fact is that the IT teams that develop the APIs often do not have the ability to also put the necessary focus and resources on all the activities involved to:

• Enhance the onboarding experience and use of APIs
• Keep documentation up-to-date and available
• Provide support for a large number of users
• Gather metrics that generate insights and meet feedbacks

https://www.programmableweb.com/news/b2d-part-4-three-dx-models/2013/11/18

Sensedia DX - Boost consumption of your APIs with clear onboarding, documentation, support, and insights

To meet this need, Sensedia provides a DX team of specialists to improve the satisfaction of external and internal Developers in the consumption of APIs and save resources for your customers' IT teams.This is done through a series of activities, such as:

• Setup of a customizable Dev Portal and integrated to API platform, with sandbox for API testing, automatic documentation and easy access;
• Design development and UX of the dev portal;
• Planning of the onboarding process;
• Documentation update;
• Support available N1 / N2;
• Analysis of monthly metrics and reports for continuous improvement of the experience;

Among the main benefits that Sensedia customers get with this service, there are:

• Save your team's resources to focus on other business-critical issues
• Stimulate the consumption of APIs
• Gain onboarding agility and integration with fewer errors
• Increase user satisfaction
• Accelerate innovation and time-to-market
• Keep documentation up-to-date and accessible at all times
• Carry out Real-time monitoring and periodic reports generating Insights
• Ensure that the best practices are being applied and a continuous evolution of the developers experience.

“With the support of Sensedia's DX at Netshoes, we have a team looking specifically at the health of our APIs.The Sensedia team has become so adept at our APIs that we often turn to them to ask questions about the behavior of a particular stream.” - Jorge PeresWant to know more? See also:

• APIX 2019 | Developer Engagement - Como posicionar sua marca com desenvolvedores - Português - YouTube

Know More:

• Sensedia Developer Experience
• Sensedia API Care - Operação Pró-ativa 24x7