Build a More Successful API Program with Postman’s Public API Network

Yannick Daly

July 20, 2022· 4 mins

APIs are the cornerstone of modern technology. Today, companies across nearly every industry are increasingly adopting API strategies in their business operations and providing endless possibilities to the end user by bridging the gaps between applications. In fact, 94% of respondents in Postman’s 2021 State of the API Report said that investment of time and resources into APIs would increase or stay the same for the next 12 months.

Reasons for adopting an API program

With 90% of developers leveraging APIs globally, more and more enterprises have adopted or are trying to adopt API business strategies with some form of an API program—whether it’s having a developer portal or a formal partnership process for API consumers. These programs are important because they can provide the following growth to your business:

• A gateway to strategic partnerships
• Additional revenue streams via upselling or paid access
• Connectivity to other applications to bring additional functionality and features to an application or service

Make your APIs more accessible

But what makes a good API program? Accessibility is one of the key features that should be considered for any API program. Developers often seek solutions or alternatives through APIs under time constraints with approaching deadlines. Whether your APIs are paid or free, developers want the fastest way to get to the first successful API call. This should be your most important metric when measuring the success of your APIs: the time it takes to get to that first success message gives the consumer a number of insights on the level of effort it will take to adopt an API.

The power of public workspaces in the Postman API Network

One of the most powerful features we’ve implemented at Postman is the ability for organizations to create public workspaces for their APIs on Postman’s Public API Network, allowing developers to obtain that “time to first API call” faster. With Postman Collections serving as the standard for API testing, organizations such as Twitter and Salesforce have found huge success leveraging public workspaces in their API programs.

Tapping into Postman’s 20 million users, the Salesforce public workspace has received more than 200,000 hits and 50,000 forks because the Salesforce team utilized our Public API Network, driving additional traffic to their APIs. The Microsoft Graph team has also launched a successful public workspace with more than 100,000 users accessing their APIs through Postman.

A public workspace minimizes the steps for developers to access and work with an API—their journey is as simple as signing up for Postman, obtaining an API Key, and using Postman Collections to get their first test started. With the optimum API configuration provided directly from the organization, public workspaces assist both the API provider and consumer by providing hands-on examples for the developer; this mitigates confusion and the need for API support from the organization.

To see how companies have used the Postman Public API Network to enhance their API programs, check out well-built public workspaces  New Relic, Amadeus, and PayPal.