KPI for API - PRODUCT MANAGER'S BEST FRIEND
KPI for APIs for PM
-Sridhar Gangavarapu
APIs have evolved from being a "nice to have" to "should have" software components. Here is my write up API brush up (Click).
Let's get to the core topic KPIs for APIs:
KPI: Key Performance Index(es) measure the performance of an API from different "lens". The KPI value is just a number or a percentage which makes sense only when you put it in context.
We will talk about the context and "lens" in a bit.
For a PM, the list of KPIs originate from answering two questions:
1) Why do we need this?
2) Who is this for ?
The "What" and "How" follow "Why" and "Who".
Why: Talks about the Business problem that this API will solve. This is the most important question.
There should be a set of KPIs tracking the level of achievement.
Examples: 1) Business is losing revenue as customers are migrating to other robust Platforms.
2) Company's reputation as an innovator has dropped from 1st place to 2nd.
3) Company sales dropped 15% as customers as customers are adopting newer technologies that we don't support.
These problems could be converted into "Themes" that enable the PM to easily identify the KPIs
Example:
User Acquisition, Drive Innovation, Multi Platform support, Marketing Channel, User retention, Drive Traffic etc..
The Who:
Who are the stakeholders? CEO,CFO, COO, CIO, CMO, DevOps, PM, Developer.
The "lens" that i mentioned is this "persona". What one persona needs is different than other.
We can summarize this as "Persona - User Story" results in "Lens - KPI".
For example:
CFO KPI: Revenue growth, ROI, Profit margin, CLTV (Customer Life Time Value).
Marketing Head: Demographics, Channel growth, Portal new visits/leads
Note: The user of the APIs are developers. Developers developers Apps(Applications) using the API. The App users (end customers) use the Apps. Hence, the KPI should not stop at Developers but need to propagate to the end user as well.
For API, we have three categories:
1) Internal (within your company)
2) Private (you and your partners)
3) Public (Any authorized user). many times called OPEN API
The AARRR (Pirate Metrics) classification is very relevant and appropriate for web applications and APIs as well.
Acquisitions:
Activation
Retention:
Revenue:
Referral:
We will talk about the context and "lens" in a bit.
For a PM, the list of KPIs originate from answering two questions:
1) Why do we need this?
2) Who is this for ?
The "What" and "How" follow "Why" and "Who".
Why: Talks about the Business problem that this API will solve. This is the most important question.
There should be a set of KPIs tracking the level of achievement.
Examples: 1) Business is losing revenue as customers are migrating to other robust Platforms.
2) Company's reputation as an innovator has dropped from 1st place to 2nd.
3) Company sales dropped 15% as customers as customers are adopting newer technologies that we don't support.
These problems could be converted into "Themes" that enable the PM to easily identify the KPIs
Example:
User Acquisition, Drive Innovation, Multi Platform support, Marketing Channel, User retention, Drive Traffic etc..
The Who:
Who are the stakeholders? CEO,CFO, COO, CIO, CMO, DevOps, PM, Developer.
The "lens" that i mentioned is this "persona". What one persona needs is different than other.
We can summarize this as "Persona - User Story" results in "Lens - KPI".
For example:
CFO KPI: Revenue growth, ROI, Profit margin, CLTV (Customer Life Time Value).
Marketing Head: Demographics, Channel growth, Portal new visits/leads
Note: The user of the APIs are developers. Developers developers Apps(Applications) using the API. The App users (end customers) use the Apps. Hence, the KPI should not stop at Developers but need to propagate to the end user as well.
For API, we have three categories:
1) Internal (within your company)
2) Private (you and your partners)
3) Public (Any authorized user). many times called OPEN API
The AARRR (Pirate Metrics) classification is very relevant and appropriate for web applications and APIs as well.
Acquisitions:
Activation
Retention:
Revenue:
Referral:
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