Developer Relations Program Spotlight: Uber

Uber Spotlight Q&A

1. What are the benefits of having the developer evangelism and engineering teams in one organization and are there any negatives of work on more problems because of that alignmentWe experienced a variety of benefits from this model.

For one, the ownership dynamics change radically; Developer Advocacy is empowered to make improvements to products like the SDKs, Docs and Developer Tools. The feedback loop between external developers and the engineering teams is also dramatically tighter. Feedback and bug reports from the community get turned into actions and improvements quickly. Last but not least, it improves the culture of both teams since they learn from each other.

For instance, post-mortems are required for all support requests handled by Developer Advocates who answer two important questions to improve the developer experience: (1) what did we learn from this request? and (2) what was done to prevent a similar question in the future? On the other side, Engineering is more encouraged to think about the impact of their work on developers and make decisions to build the best possible experience for their customers.

2. Your talk showed how you uniquely combine engineering and developer relations into one team. How does your team integrate with other parts of Uber – development, sales, web, marketing, partner programs, etc.?

We operate as a true platform team, even internally. To do this, we provide services and technology substrates to internal Uber teams to use if and when they build products for developers. Just like an API, we have defined an interface and SLAs for interactions with internal teams. We help teams to understand the benefits of an external API and we provide guidance throughout the development journey of new APIs. We intend to ramp this up further with internal talks and advocacy programs as well.

3. How many developers are in the Uber developer program?

We have a few dozen people on the team. The platform powers thousands of companies using Uber’s API, ranging from multinational corporations to city transit planners to dorm-room startups.

4. How many applications have been created using the Uber SDKs/APIs?

Check out our showcases for examples of great integrations. We’re not necessarily looking for quantity so much as quality. We try to provide tools that encourage developers to think about the future and make creative leaps.

5. How has developer outreach positively impacted Uber’s business: revenue, customer satisfaction, partnerships, etc.? Can you share some statistics?

We broadly think of the Developer Platform as a way to enable third party developers to leverage Uber’s capabilities as a starting place for their own innovation and positive disruption. If we can help developers be successful with our tools then, as a contributor to that success, Uber benefits in innumerable ways.

6. Do you track any data about return on investment on the cost of doing developer relations and what it means to the Uber’s business?

Here at Uber, we like to have big bets. This means that we’re willing to take a longer-term-view on some of the activities we’re engaged in.

But, it’s important we have wins along the way. For example, when we go to events, we expect to onboard some new developers to our platform, which we measure by website visitors, new apps, and time to first sandbox and production call.

7. Did you have any challenges or issues in getting buy-in from Uber – to have the developer program number one and number two having it integrated as part of platform engineering

Our leaders strongly believe in the power of open developer ecosystems. They’ve been very supportive and have even encouraged us to think bigger.

8. Are there any other key performance indicators statistics that you track and provide to Uber management to keep them informed and supporting how the developer program is doing?

There are some short-term tactical numbers we pay attention to like Trips and Bookings. But there are also early indicators of longer-term success like our NPS and developer engagement.

9. Is there anything else that you’d like to add about the Uber program its uniqueness and where do you see developer relations and developer outreach going in the future?

We enable developers to, with just a few API calls, add a little bit of the real world into their virtual products. Bits to atoms..
The great developer platforms today all provide unique features during key moments in a user’s life. Amazon Echo or Google Home are with you at home. Facebook Messenger is there to help you chat with friends. Slack helps you collaborate with your colleagues. Uber is there with you while you travel from A to B. We believe there’s a lot of opportunity here for Developers of all sizes to elevate and differentiate their apps with features and trip context from Uber. We’re just at the beginning.