How and why you would shut down an API program, some alternatives, and the top 3 reasons a platform will get retired.

1. SHUT IT DOWN
HOW TO:
Tyler Singletary
@harmophone

2. “IT IS FORBIDDEN TO KILL; THEREFORE
ALL MURDERERS ARE PUNISHED
UNLESS THEY KILL IN LARGE NUMBERS
AND TO THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS.”
Voltaire
SHUT IT DOWN

3. SHUT IT DOWN
LET'S SET SOME CONDITIONS
▸ LET: The API is built. The program is launched.
▸ LET: You have usage, some significant partnerships or
customers

4. SHUT IT DOWN
WHY??
▸ Your executive
leadership just isn't
into it
▸ You didn't hit the
revenue or enterprise
value to channel
conflict ratio
▸ The product wasn't
good enough :(

5. SHUT IT DOWN
TWO WAYS TO KILL YOUR API

6. SHUT IT DOWN
LET IT DIE
▸ Don't invest in it. Minimal human effort. API Management runs it.
▸ Don't engage and support with your customers.
▸ Don't have buy-in from executive leadership.
▸ Don't regularly check in with engineers that manage Pager Duty, nightly
jobs, data quality, overall health.
▸ Market only to developers.
▸ Don't treat it like a product, don't have a sales process. Product lifecycle.
▸ Sell too soon. Over monetize and process-ify your process.

7. OR...

8. SHUT IT DOWN
CULTIVATE, BRING TO MARKET, SWAP CROPS
▸ You don't have to leave your program to die, even if you're
shutting it down
▸ Time to end-of-life after any legal contracts expire, and don't
auto-renew them. [Conversely...]
▸ Turn off new API sign ups, if you're public. Make it clear your
program is closed to new customers.
▸ Provide a path to alternatives. Might be: partnering, exports,
SAAS alternatives, and the dreaded competitor-
recommendation

9. SHUT IT DOWN
MORE THAN A COLLECTION OF ENDPOINTS
▸ You can shut down particular use cases (see: Twitter)
▸ You can shut down particular customers
▸ You can change your terms, business model, pricing,
packaging, rate limits
▸ Move from Open to Partner API, or Partner API to Private
▸ Version your API, or version your commitments

10. SHUT IT DOWN
HOW TO:
Tyler Singletary
@harmophone