A catalogue of signals worth watching on a developer portal

This catalogue is the working model behind Platfdev engagements. Use it with your DX and platform teams, or walk through it with us during a briefing.

1. Discovery & docs intent

   Landing visits by referrer, docs search queries (including zero results), time on getting-started paths, and feedback on reference pages. These show whether developers can find the path to a first call.

2. Account & key activation

   Signup completion, email verification, first API key created, and keys revoked unused. Activation without a key is rarely productive use.

3. First successful call

   Sandbox or production request that returns a success class response within a defined window after key creation. This is usually the north-star for portal health.

4. Depth of use

   Endpoints touched, error rates by status, return visits to docs after failures, and sandbox-to-production conversion for organisations — not raw call volume alone.

5. Support & friction overlays

   Ticket themes tagged to portal steps, chat deflections, and pages that precede abandon. Friction overlays explain the numbers the funnel cannot.

How teams use the catalogue

Pick three to five signals that answer the decision in front of you — partner onboarding health, docs refresh impact, or a new API surface launch. Instrument those thoroughly before expanding. Our Portal Instrumentation Audit and Developer Journey Analytics engagements build from this list.