from API Doing to API Thinking@flaviasomething

Banker of the Future

Last week, I got a mail from ING Communication on a campaign they were working on – Banker of the Future. This will be published soon on ing.com.

They wanted me to answer some questions.

”

Would you consider yourself to be a banker?

What are you working at the moment?

… I was at your presentation 2 years ago about APIs and Service Blueprinting. We didn’t do much with it then because our tribe wasn’t ready for it. However, now we’ll like to see if we can use it for

some of the challenges we’re facing. How about coffee soon at HBP?

This is another email I received couple of weeks back. From a product owner of one of the tribes at ING.

I know right, 2 years, 2 years!! Gosh. This should give you an idea about the size of the organization that is ING Bank.

And there’s this little me, who joined it 4 years back in November 2013, and thought - let’s do APIs. Here's my story.

”

2013

Within the first days at ING, I felt that the company understood that software can change a very traditional business. They knew their new competition. They had a vision for the future. “People want banking and not banks.”

They were aware of the obstacles and were resolved to smash them one by one.And there, right there I got this amazing sense of mission. I can be a part of this transformation.

”

But where to start? how to start? with what to start? The battles to be fought were many. DevOps, Continuous Delivery, UX, etc etc.

I knew that ING wanted to create an APIs based architecture. I had some experience with APIs already. So I thought, maybe APIs then. I loved architecture and APIs were these wonderful integration objects.

”

My opportunity came in December 2012 at the first API Community Meeting

During the meeting, there was this huge discussion about APIs versus Webservices. After all, our current architecture was webservices based. I saw the audience sinking into the mindset - they are essentially the same. So why change.

I was at this job for only 3 weeks now, so thought I'd shut up. But I couldn't. I saw APIs differently, and hence gathered all the courage I could to make the statement – “APIs are different. APIs are designed outside-in”.

I still remember the moment, the room went silent. It felt like forever before words came back. Then one guy said - what's outside-in.

I was prepared for that question. Then came a big description about designing APIs from the perspective of the users, the developers using the API. As compared to inside-out.

”

”This took that meeting on a different trail. Some moments later, I found myself using the word Customer Journeys. I should have shut up.

The same guy said, O yeah, we made those for this project we're doing. I happened to know that project, and I said - great, can I see them?

This was it, he got it. Customer Journeys were not a business only artifact. They were a great way to come to an API design outside-in. He promised me to give me the Customer Journeys so that I can design beautiful APIs. I felt nervous, and excited at the same time.

”We created an "Introduction to APIs" training. A 3 hour classroom training. Initially to a techie crowd.

Initially, we got a lot of push back. After all, this was a change - it was to replace the current architecture. And people let us know that.

But we persevered, and kept giving this training to over 1200 people. It became the vehicle to understand the company and how it worked.

Thank you for coming to Arnhem. People from the Ivory Tower never come here.

It’s good those APIs, we’ll still use Tibco. Are they here to stay, what do you think?

”Things were moving. APIs had the management support. It was the new architecture. We were going for “API First”. Teams started creating APIs. Hurray. Right?

Not quite. This is where the next obstacle hit.

The teams did not have enough support to build and release APIs smoothly. Our infrastructure and delivery process was not suited for APIs.

We started building our API Platform.

2015

”Soon I found myself in a new role - a Product Owner. This was “making time”.

I learnt so much being a PO. Nothing I had done before. I had stakeholders, customers, a team. It was like running a small company. Every two weeks we churned out pieces of functionality. It was an awesome awesome time.

2016

”ING was going global and so were we. Our very local initiative spread. It went global. Our local API Platform became the Global API Platform.

This meant new people, from different locations, different languages and a new start.

I handed my products over to the new & energetic people.

And took a break from APIs to explore Design and Design Thinking.

”After a year, I returned to the Global API Platform programme.

Funnily enough through a Design Thinking workshop with the team. In this workshop, we discovered that API design is not getting enough space in a setting that is building platform components. And that the outside-in mindset is getting lost. And this reflected in the APIs that were getting built.

There were new questions now. More ‘thinking questions’

We have to open up our APIs. How do we go about with this?

We just started building our API? What can your platform do for us?

”What we need is a method and toolbox to help people think about APIs and design them. We needed API Thinking.

So once again, I signed up for this mission. Only this time, I knew a trick or two ;)

Banker of the Future

Would you consider yourself to be a banker?

What are you working at the moment?

”Yes, I consider myself a banker. People have always needed ‘banking’ and not ‘banks’. I believe technology and design have the potential to provide just that. I do not wear business suits. I’m a banker who can program, design, create and like my coffee black and in single shots. Maybe I’m a bit different than the stereotypes in our heads.

”I’m working on making ING a successful 21st century company through APIs and Platforms. APIs allow software to talk. To give an example, when you ride an Uber, you’re using a map and make a payment. Both are APIs. When you think of platforms, think of places where people meet. Names like Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb come to mind, but also our own.

Specifically, I work on how we design our APIs and how we think about platforms. I consider myself as an API Thinker. My goal is to meet lot of people, and help them understand the changing business. I do this by giving talks, trainings and design workshops.

Flavia Sequeira,API Thinker@flaviasomething

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