January 2020 Summaries

ReadMe is dedicated to enhancing the documentation experience for both developers and end users by making APIs more user-friendly, regardless of technical skill level. In 2019, they achieved significant progress toward this mission by introducing features such as auto-generated code samples, real API Key displays, and API Logs within the Reference section, which simplify API usage and debugging. Looking ahead, ReadMe plans to implement new features like API onboarding for beginners, curated examples for diverse use cases, and integrations with support tools to diagnose issues. Additionally, they aim to improve their core product by updating their markdown and API editors to be more intuitive and flexible, enhancing mobile support, and refining the API Explorer. ReadMe encourages feedback through their published product roadmap and is actively hiring to further their goal of improving API experiences across numerous companies.

In 2019, ReadMe experienced significant growth and product development, marked by a successful Series A funding from Accel and team expansion, along with substantial code changes comprising 40% of its five-year history. Key product updates included the launch of Developer Metrics for real-time API log streaming, an enhanced Suggested Edits feature for improved collaborative documentation, and Enterprise Permissions allowing selective access to project documentation. Additional improvements involved an audit page quality feature for user feedback, a redesigned changelog with an embeddable widget and API, customizable page metadata for better online visibility, a new project dashboard with optimized navigation, and a Slack integration for notifications about suggested edits and discussions. These developments aimed to enhance user experience, documentation quality, and accessibility.

ReadMe has transitioned from its homegrown SSL certificate generation service to Cloudflare's SSL for SaaS product, a move aimed at enhancing security, reliability, and performance for its customers' documentation sites. This change capitalizes on Cloudflare's global Content Delivery Network and Web Application Firewall, providing improved protection against automated DOS attacks and better global performance. Initially, ReadMe's custom SSL system, launched in 2017, was a cutting-edge solution that offered free SSL certificates for thousands of domains, but the company now prefers to leverage Cloudflare's advanced infrastructure for better service management. The migration, which took about three months and involved numerous API calls and DNS queries, will be further detailed by Gabe, the technical lead on the project.

After joining ReadMe, the author sought to quantify customer support interactions to better understand the company's evolution, leading to the implementation of Intercom Tags for conversation tracking. To ensure consistent tagging, an enforcer was created using the Intercom API, which reopens any conversation closed without a tag, prompting staff to add one. This process was facilitated by Intercom's comprehensive documentation, making the setup straightforward. Since implementing this system, various customer inquiries have been tracked, such as billing, Cloudflare migration, and invoice requests, enabling the company to gather valuable data on customer inquiries to enhance their knowledge base and address areas of confusion.