The API Owner’s Manual - Best practices of successful API teams

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have become the digital connective tissue of modern
organizations, adding new capabilities to everything from their operations and products to their part-
nership strategies. It’s no longer a stretch to say that most organizations don’t ask whether to engage
in API programs, but rather how to do so. This e-book aims to answer this question by drawing on
seven best practices of effective API programs:
1. Focus relentlessly on the value of the API
2. Make the business model clear from the beginning
3. Design and implement with the user in mind
4. Place API operations at the top of the list
5. Obsess about developer experience
6. Go beyond marketing 101
7. Remember API retirement and change management
This book provides an overview of how a successful API program runs and holds together, along with
best practices about how to make that happen. We’ve included a number of examples of successful
API programs, including APIdaze, eBay, Flickr, Lingo24, Netflix, SendBird, SendGrid, Alpaca, Rakuten
Slice, Stripe, and Twilio. Throughout this e-book, we hope you ask yourself key questions about your
own plans — and gain the right focus to create a valuable API