Last night I took part in the first virtual API the Docs edition, where I listened to two great talks, one by Leah R. Tucker of {your}APIs and one by Kristof van Tomme of Pronovix. The event took place via GoToMeeting, with discussions happening in parallel on Slack. There was also an unconference part with breakout sessions happening via Google Meet, but unfortunately, I had to leave after the talks so I couldn’t join them.

Leah talked about Designing a future-proof API program. She drew parallels between supply chains and large numbers of APIs in an organization, emphasizing the need for consistency in APIs. I liked how she approached it not just from a perspective of developer experience but also a more general brand experience. That might be the right way of putting it to get buy-in from non-technical management to invest in API design and build up a data steward team.

Kristof talked about Beyond API Spray & Pray - Devportals in Digital Transformation. He described two trends of digital transformation; the redefinition of closeness by replacing physical proximity with digital proximity. The second is market complexity, for which he referred to the Cynefin framework. APIs and developer portals can help in achieving transformation. Kristof also gave an overview of different types of developer portals and the role they play.

I enjoyed both talks and the Q&A that followed them. If you’re curious about the next event, you can register on the Eventbrite page and also join the new API the Docs Slack workspace.