Stakeholders

By definition, stakeholders are anyone that has an interest or concern in the development and management of your API product. These can range from existing customers who have direct involvement in the API product to potential competitors who are observing your strategy and seeing how it can influence theirs. Your job is to identify, categorize, and understand each and every stakeholder.

Let’s start by understanding how existing customers can influence the success of your API product. Customers are the primary users and source of revenue for your API product. The more customers you have, the more revenue you can potentially generate and the more you can learn to improve your API. Customers give you direct feedback about the quality of your API that you can use to adapt your strategy to reach your goals. If customers are on the user side of your API product, company shareholders or partners are on the investor side. Their needs relate to business factors and how...