I regularly make the mistake to believe in the business rhetoric around markets and building good products, and then I find myself neck deep within an enterprise you’ve respected for a long time from the outside-in. I’ve long ago stopped being surprised at how enterprise are run, and the scale, chaos, and ideology that is entrenched within them. For the longest time I was shocked when I encounter an enterprise who weren’t investing in standardization and governance, but now I understand the business and politics of enterprise API operations which manifest itself as API governance, experience, and other initiatives.
Originally my assumption was that enterprise are interested in governing their API sprawl and standardizing APIs and operations so that they could be more efficient, while maintaining or increasing quality. In 2025 I have consulted with a lot of folks who are leading the charge with API governance, experience, and other API operational overhauls, and these people are rarely experts, or even possess any experience with APIs. They are often times product managers or other architect and management level operators who have responded to a need to govern or improve on the experience of internal or external API operations. I am more than happy to consult with folks about these things, and I’ve been making some decent money consulting with these folks, but I have to take note of who I am seeing chosen for these jobs by leadership.
I see the job description for a lot of these jobs because I track on them. The people they hire don’t have the skills listed as part of that job, but are sending some other valuable signals to the leadership within enterprises looking to hire for these roles. It just leaves me wondering what is being prioritized in these interviews and hiring decisions when the person you bring on doesn’t have any experience with APIs, but do generally have project, product, or management skills. This is something that I see with a lot of enterprise organizations but honestly are seeing it more with startups who have reached a certain level of maturity after acquisition or a certain amount of growth. I am guessing this is a product of companies getting squeezed for revenue by the board and executive leadership, and are just bringing in warm bodies to occupy key roles in sustaining APIs.
There is a lot of rhetoric and even belief within the startup API realm that enterprises want to do the right thing when it comes to APIs, but we you actually evaluate how they are hiring as part of a wider strategy, you begin to see how the enshittification of these platforms is playing out. The goal isn’t to improve upon things and do the right thing. The goal is to get a warm body in there to barely sustain things and squeeze as much revenue out of APIs as you possibly can, and this includes hiring cheap inexperienced talent who hasn’t a clue what needs to happen, but are willing to jump and do whatever they are told as part of enterprise operations.
