Value Proposition Interface Canvas

The Value Proposition Interface Canvas makes it explicit how you are creating value with your API for your customers and how you are providing value. It is a tool that helps you to systematically understand the customer needs and to design API products your customer wants. It makes the difference between building an interface to exploit your value proposition or an ordinary API. We refer to an interface to a value proposition as Value Proposition Interface (VPI).

Let’s imagine you’re feeling sick and feeling pain just everywhere. You go to the pharmacist, and he tells you: “Listen, I can give you full access to chemical elements in the periodic table. You have the full freedom of combining them to create your cure. My offer consists of over 100 chemical elements that empowers you to build whatever you dream of”. Most enterprises fail with their API program because they focus on their internal applications and how to generically expose them without taking customer needs into account. We refer to this approach as application-driven API approach, which is about providing an interface to an application.

Now, let’s imagine a second pharmacist: “Listen, I’ve got medicine that will relieve your pains and will make you healthy again. You’ll enjoy life again and perform at work as if nothing happened.”. Contrary to the first pharmacist, the second pharmacist understands the customer’s problem and offers a medicine that promises to cure the customer. The medicine might combine some chemical elements (from the first pharmacist) to offer…