Combining Technical Knowledge With End User Insight feat. Erik Wilde, API Expert at Axway

With a career based on guiding the uninitiated through the world of APIs, it’s not surprising that Erik Wilde, API expert at Axway, thinks the space has gotten too technical.

An insider who spends a lot of time talking to people on the outside of the API development process, Erik is particularly well-placed to see the disconnect between the end users and the developers.

More often than not, developers are the only ones involved in the process of building APIs from scratch, even though they won’t be the only ones using them. 

This creates confusion and even suspicion on the business side. And if you don’t think about your end goal first — based on the user's needs — you might miss it.

On this episode of API Intersection, Erik explains why the technical aspects of API development are ultimately less important than creating something that’s actually useful, why he isn’t Team REST or Team GraphQL, and why big companies struggle to standardize terms.

Episode source