LISTEN — Building Better Products Together
As I often mention to my team, the success of DevExchange is in creating a culture that inspires co-creation and cultivating a platform mindset. More specifically what I mean is that a strong platform mindset enables consumers to access data anytime and anywhere while creating a space for startups and innovators to co-create with big financial institutions, such as Capital One. It also allows us to create experiences that we would otherwise be unable to develop with internal resources alone. That was the concept that became the foundation of DevExchange.
When we started DevExchange in March 2016 at SXSW. Most API platforms had names like, oh, say, “Developer Platform.” Boring! We named ours DevExchange because we wanted everyone involved to understand that our platform and developer experience was built around the concept of “exchange” in every sense — the exchange of ideas, information, and open source code.
But, the DevExchange is much more than exchanging and communicating, it’s also about co-creation, or building things together that make consumers’ lives easier and the world a better place. On DevExchange, we encourage our partners, affiliates, and startups alike to create applications and digital experiences together. Over the last year, we have developed some amazing things such as the Bank Account Starter, an API that allows affiliates to give their customers the ability to open a savings account with no fees, minimums or catches — all without ever leaving the affiliate site. We are also really excited about the Credit Offers API that returns a personalized list of Capital One credit cards in under 60 sends, all based on a few pieces of personal information. And, there’s so much more in the hopper that I know you’ll be excited about.
So, what’s ahead for the DevExchange in 2017? Well, we have a long list of enhancements, but let me share a few highlights that you’ll see on the platform such as a co-development environment, an early adopter preview program, extra help with professional services, and joint partner marketing. We’re also planning some additional co-creation programs within Capital One so that our developers can contribute to our API Center of Excellence and to DevExchange Inside, an internal portal where our engineers can collaborate on API design and document features. There will even be a community area where developers can submit ideas, ask questions, and contribute to a collaborative music platform we’ll be announcing at SXSW.
It was a pleasure to discuss these topics with David and our webinar audience. If you didn’t get a chance to catch our webinar — or you simply want to experience it again — please check out the event page where you can sign in to access a recording of the webinar.
Bald Geek
