I finally got a chance to watch the Canva extend developer platform event.
Link at the bottom of this post
Developer Platforms help you create defensibly for your business and elevate your product from a point solution to a critical part of the fabric of the Internet. It’s arguably the key reason companies and products like Facebook and the iPhone became as powerful as they are.
Based on their launch event, it is clear that Canva is running a near-perfect playbook for launching a new developer platform and ecosystem.
This includes...
Deep buy-in from the business
A deep understanding that “if you want to go far, go together.”
Named and branded Developer program
A HUGE focus on distribution and monetization for developers
Meaningful innovation fund to supercharge the ecosystem + flywheel
Standardized rails - no custom integrations
Two clear modalities: a) In-app discovery, provisioning, and extensibility via “Apps” b) External connections via “Connect APIs”
Easy to install and use SDKs with UI components and Sample Apps
Strong opinions on design principles
Awesome launch partners that clearly demonstrate key use cases
A big-bang launch moment to incentivize and reward launch partners and kick-start the ecosystem + flywheel
Developer advocates live on stage, showing code
A long-term commitment (years)
This is the exact playbook I was running at Uber.
It's also the playbook I've helped companies execute as part of my advisory work.
In fact, the quote they cited, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together," was written on the wall where the Uber Developer Platform team sat.
This playbook is filled with counter-intuitive decisions and is often met with religious arguments (almost allergic organ rejection) by most people inside most companies. It takes a particular experience, mindset, and culture to truly understand the value of ecosystems, flywheels, and long-term thinking.
Massive Kudos to the team. I suspect Anwar Haneef had a lot to do with what happened on stage. I'm curious about who else was the driving force behind such pitch-perfect execution.