In our interaction with customers we’ve noticed that in the beginning phase of their developer portal journey, most API teams assume that all devportals are the same. In reality however, the specific requirements and business goals of companies have a significant impact on their devportals. That is why we start our projects with an Information Architecture engagement to clarify tech related questions and to keep users in the main focus. The engagement consists of 4 steps:

1. Seek answers to the fundamental questions: business goals, target audiences, API strategy, etc.
2. Make an inventory of the existing materials.
3. Hold an information architecture workshop with key devportal stakeholders.
4. Create a roadmap for the content, design and development needs.

By the end of the talk, we all have a common understanding of user needs, business goals, and how different pages should be connected. This method helps us to see goals holistically, taking into consideration more than just the needs of the portal team and the hierarchy of the business units. As a result we have the big picture: the devportal sitemap that can be broken down into the tasks for the development phases.