There’s been lots of buzz in the tech startup space about “growth hacking” – what is it? how is it related to development? how is it related to marketing?

At it’s core, growth hacking is about finding a strategy for growth within the parameters of scalability and replicability, driven by product and inspired by data. Growth hacking’s core is based in marketing but driven by product.

Once the definition is clear, the question then becomes: without a UI to lean on, how does one “growth hack” an API?

At last year’s Nordic API conference, Guillaume Balas from 3Scale presented several typologies of an API, namely API is the product, API projects the product, API promotes the product, and API powers the product.

This presentation will elaborate on and reframe those typologies in the context of marketing and growth hacking of an API. We will examine the circumstances where an API is actually a growth hack in of itself, and where it is in need of growth hacking in order to make the business model behind it succeed.

The presentation will use core concepts of strategic marketing – such as positioning, pricing, targeting, promotion, product and distribution – to create a framework for either growth hacking an API or developing an API as a key tactic in a growth strategy.