Reimagining developer portal onboarding
Every now and then, someone questions an assumption we had quietly accepted.
Perhaps onboarding does not need to begin where we thought it should. Besides introducing people to an API, the portal has to help them understand how those capabilities are meant to be used. New interface styles, including AI-facing interfaces, create opportunities to rethink where onboarding begins and what confidence looks like during those first interactions.
The Best Reimagined Onboarding Experience in a Developer Portal category exists to recognise those moments. It does not favour a particular technology, protocol, methodology, or interaction model. Whether the onboarding experience introduces REST APIs, GraphQL, event APIs, MCP, or something else entirely is secondary to how effectively it helps people establish a first successful interaction.
Because this category is grounded in observable experience, nominations need to provide the jury with a way to experience that journey directly. The most compelling submissions will explain why their onboarding is different and allow the jury to discover it for themselves.
What makes onboarding truly reimagined
Successful onboarding may include obtaining credentials, connecting an application or AI client, completing a first API call or tool invocation, understanding the capabilities exposed through an interface, and following quick-start guidance that helps people become productive with confidence.
In this category, we are looking for portals that rethink how users move from first access to first successful use, whether they are integrating directly with an API or configuring AI clients to interact with the same capabilities. That might mean making a conceptually unfamiliar domain easier to navigate, removing a long-standing barrier in the onboarding journey, or creating a more accessible path for people with different needs. The common thread is not the technology, but the quality of the onboarding experience.
Award Criteria
The jury will ask:
- What has been reimagined? What assumption, obstacle, or convention did the onboarding experience challenge, and what changed as a result?
- How does the experience help users become productive with the chosen integration approach? Does it provide the guidance, credentials, quick starts, and contextual information needed to reach a first successful integration, API call or tool invocation?
- How does the onboarding reduce complexity? Does it provide the right guidance, language, examples, and supporting material at the points where users are most likely to hesitate or lose confidence?
- How inclusive is the experience? Has the portal been designed to work for people with different needs and abilities? Where appropriate, are onboarding materials structured so they can be consumed by automated tools and AI clients, alongside people? Where the primary experience does not work for everyone, are meaningful alternative pathways available?
- What makes the difference observable? Can the jury experience the reimagined onboarding journey themselves and understand why it represents a meaningful departure from conventional onboarding?
Nominate now!
Ready to shine?
If your developer portal delivers a thoughtful, empowering and reimagined onboarding experience, we want to see it!
