Success Metrics for the Team Opening Instagram to Outside Developers in 2013

The year is 2013. Instagram has set up a team whose charter is to build the company's first API. How would you define success for this team, and how would you measure it? ```hint Who the API serves An API has more than one set of users: the outside developers who build on it, the Instagram members who use what they build, and Instagram itself. Decide what Instagram wants from opening up before you pick a metric. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the first API read-only (for example, showing a member's photos or a hashtag feed in another app), or can apps also like, comment, follow or post on a member's behalf? - Who may use it: any outside developer, selected partners only, or brands and businesses? - What does Instagram most want from it: reach beyond its own app, an ecosystem that brings in members and engagement, or a base for future business products? - Is the team judged on the API alone, or also on what the API does to activity inside the Instagram app? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Why Instagram would open an API at this point, and a one-line mission for the team - What success means for developers, for Instagram members and for Instagram, and where those goals conflict - One primary metric tied to the mission, with input metrics along the developer funnel from sign-up to an app people use every week - Guardrails for spam and bots, privacy, scraping, reliability and harm to the core app - How targets are set for a brand-new platform, and how the focus shifts as it matures ### Follow-up Questions - Third-party apps start sending a lot of traffic, but some of them run mass-follow and like bots. How would your metrics catch this, and what would you do? - How would you tell whether the API added members and engagement, rather than moving activity out of the official app? - A large partner wants more access than the policy allows. How do you decide?