Profiling API Developers

by Kin Lane on 04/17/2012

For the last couple weeks I’m neck deep in getting to know the developers who already use the CityGrid APIs. I want a better understanding of who a developer is, what kind of business they have and what they are looking to get out of the API.

To find this out I start out profiling them socially using Rapportive (which I plan on automating using the Full Contact API as soon as I have more time) for the following information:

Twitter Profile
LinkedIn Account
Facebook Profile
Google + Profile
Github Profile

Usually I know the URL of their website, but if I don’t, I can extract from their email address or sometimes Rapportive will provide for me. I visit each developer’s site and look for:

Blog w/ RSS Feed
Business Contact Email
Business Contact Form

Next I build a quick one sentence description, telling me who they are and what they do. I also assemble a comma separated list of keyword and key phrases that best represent what they do.

Before I’m done looking around their site I take a picture of their home page, so I have a visual reference to go with the developer profile. The home page image can go further than just a logo sometimes.

I take all of this information, put it into a database, and connected it to a JQuery Carousel that allows me to watch a slideshow that walks me through the world of my developers, and watch like a TV channel.

This process not only gives me a 100K understanding my developer ecosystem, but helps me remember as much as I can about each developer. From this I hope to better engage them on a daily basis as well as provide feedback to the CityGrid API roadmap based upon quality API developer segmentation.