--- title: "What to Build First — Your 4-Week API Adoption Playbook" slug: "/help/api/api-adoption-playbook" last_updated: "2026-03-09T17:55:19Z" zendesk_id: 49764626078099 zendesk_url: "https://help.walnut.io/hc/en-us/articles/49764626078099-What-to-Build-First-Your-4-Week-API-Adoption-Playbook" locale: "en-us" product: "api" displayed_sidebar: "apiSidebar" sidebar_position: 7 --- You have the API key, you've run your first query. Now what? This playbook gives you a week-by-week plan to go from "API works" to "demo data is driving decisions across the team." Each week builds on the last. Start with the quick wins, then layer in the deeper integrations. --- # Week 1: Visibility — Get Data Flowing **Goal:** Your team sees demo performance data every day without logging into Walnut. **Time required:** ~1 hour ## What to Build A daily summary posted to your team's Slack channel (or emailed) every morning. ## How **Option A — No-code (Zapier/Make/n8n):** 1. Create a scheduled trigger (daily at 8am) 2. HTTP GET to `https://customer-api.teamwalnut.com/demo-sessions/summary` 3. Post to Slack with a formatted message See the **Zapier/Make/n8n** section in the Code Samples page for step-by-step setup. **Option B — Python script on a cron:** Use the **Pull Full Summary** sample from the Code Samples page. Add a Slack webhook call at the end. ## What the Team Gets Every morning, a message like: > _📊 Yesterday's Demo Performance_ > Sessions: 142 | Completed: 38 (26.8%) | Bounced: 89 (62.7%) > Avg duration: 24s | Avg interactions: 1.8 > Top demo: Product Overview (31 sessions) > Top country: United States (68 sessions) ## Success Criteria - \[ \] Summary posts automatically every day - \[ \] At least 3 team members are reading it in the first week - \[ \] You can answer "how did our demos perform yesterday?" in 5 seconds --- # Week 2: Action — Hot Lead Alerts **Goal:** Sales reps get notified in real time when a prospect shows high intent in a demo. **Time required:** ~1–2 hours ## What to Build An automated alert that fires when a prospect: - **Completes** the demo (`is_completed = true`) - **AND** has more than 5 interactions (`interaction_count > 5`) ## How 1. Schedule a poll every 30 minutes 2. Pull today's external sessions with relevant fields 3. Filter for the criteria above 4. Deduplicate (track session IDs you've already alerted on) 5. Send a Slack DM or channel message to the demo owner See the **Daily High-Intent Alert** Python sample or the **Hot Lead Alerts** Zapier workflow in the other guide pages. ## What the Team Gets Real-time notifications like: > _🔥 High-Intent Demo View_ > **Demo:** Enterprise Platform Tour > **Owner:** Sarah K. > **Engagement:** 12 clicks, 6 screens viewed > **Location:** London, United Kingdom > **Time:** 2:15 PM UTC > _This prospect completed the full demo with above-average engagement. Consider following up today._ ## Success Criteria - \[ \] Alerts are firing correctly (test with an internal demo view first) - \[ \] Reps confirm they're finding the alerts useful - \[ \] At least one follow-up action is taken based on an alert in the first week ## Why This Matters The average response time to a hot lead drops from hours to minutes. A prospect who just spent 3 minutes actively clicking through your demo is at peak interest — that's when your rep should reach out. --- # Week 3: Attribution — CRM Sync **Goal:** Demo engagement data appears on CRM records so reps and managers see it in context alongside deal data. **Time required:** ~3–4 hours ## What to Build A daily sync that pulls yesterday's prospect sessions and logs them to the matching deal or contact in your CRM. ## How **Step 1 — Pull daily sessions:** ```bash curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \\ "" ``` **Step 2 — Match to CRM records:** | Match Strategy | How | Best When | | --- | --- | --- | | By demo owner | `demo_owner_name` → find their open deals in CRM | Each rep sends demos to their own deals | | By origin URL | Parse the share link from `origin_url` → match to CRM activity | You track share links in deal notes | | By lead form | `lead_form_submitted=true` sessions have contact info in Walnut → match by email | You use lead forms on your demos | **Step 3 — Write to CRM:** | CRM | Where to Log | Suggested Approach | | --- | --- | --- | | **HubSpot** | Timeline event on Deal or Contact | Use HubSpot Timeline Events API or create a Note via API | | **Salesforce** | Custom object or Task on Opportunity | Create a "Demo Engagement" custom object, or log as a completed Task | | **Other CRM** | Activity or Note | Most CRMs have an API for creating activities — log a note with the session details | ## What the Team Gets On any deal record, reps and managers can see: - Which demos were viewed and when - Whether prospects completed or bounced - Engagement level (clicks, screens viewed) - A clear signal of buyer intent alongside pipeline data ## Success Criteria - \[ \] Yesterday's sessions appear on CRM records by 9am - \[ \] Reps can see demo engagement without leaving the CRM - \[ \] Managers can use demo engagement as a signal in pipeline reviews ## Why This Matters Demo engagement is one of the strongest intent signals you have. When it lives inside the CRM, it becomes part of how deals are qualified and prioritized — not a separate tool reps forget to check. --- # Week 4: Insight — Executive Dashboard **Goal:** Leadership has a dashboard showing demo performance trends, top demos, and channel effectiveness — updated automatically. **Time required:** ~2–3 hours ## What to Build A dashboard with 4 views: **1\. KPI Cards** (from `/demo-sessions/summary`) - Total external sessions - Completion rate - Bounce rate - Avg interactions per session **2\. Trend Line** (from `group_by=date`) - Daily external sessions over the last 90 days - Overlay completion rate as a second axis **3\. Channel Comparison** (from `group_by=is_embed`) - Embedded vs. direct: session count, completion rate, avg engagement - Shows which channel is performing better **4\. Top 10 Demos** (from `/demo-sessions/summary` → `top_demos`) - Ranked by session volume - Ideally enriched with per-demo completion rate ## How | Your Tool | Approach | | --- | --- | | **Looker / Tableau / Power BI** | Set up a REST API data source pointing to the API. Use the 3 data source queries from the Integration Recipes page. Schedule daily refresh. | | **Google Sheets + Charts** | Use the Apps Script samples from the Code Samples page to pull data into sheets, then build native Google Sheets charts on top. | | **Notion + AI** | Use the AI Weekly Digest recipe — pull summary data, feed to an LLM, post a narrated summary to a Notion page or Slack weekly. | ## What the Team Gets A dashboard that answers the questions leadership actually asks: - _"Are demos driving pipeline?"_ → Session trends + completion rates - _"Which demos are working?"_ → Top 10 by engagement, not just volume - _"Should we invest more in website embeds?"_ → Embed vs. direct comparison - _"Are reps actually sending demos?"_ → Internal vs. external ratio ## Success Criteria - \[ \] Dashboard refreshes automatically (daily) - \[ \] At least one leadership meeting references the dashboard in the first 2 weeks - \[ \] The team stops asking "can someone pull the demo numbers?" --- # After Week 4: What's Next Once the foundation is in place, here are high-impact extensions to consider: | Initiative | What It Does | Builds On | | --- | --- | --- | | **Re-engagement automations** | Auto-notify reps when a prospect bounces from a demo tied to an open deal | Week 2 (alerts) + Week 3 (CRM sync) | | **Demo A/B testing** | Compare two versions of a demo by completion rate and engagement using `demo_id` filtering | Week 4 (dashboard) | | **Buyer journey mapping** | Track how the same prospect engages across multiple demos over time | Week 3 (CRM sync) | | **AI-powered insights** | Connect via MCP so your team can ask natural-language questions about demo data | Any week — standalone | | **Data warehouse export** | Full historical export into Snowflake/BigQuery for advanced analytics | Pagination recipe from Code Samples | --- # Summary | Week | Theme | What You Build | Time | Impact | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **1** | Visibility | Daily Slack/email summary | ~1 hr | Team sees demo data daily without effort | | **2** | Action | Hot lead alerts | ~1–2 hrs | Reps follow up on high-intent viewers in minutes, not hours | | **3** | Attribution | CRM sync | ~3–4 hrs | Demo engagement becomes part of deal qualification | | **4** | Insight | Executive dashboard | ~2–3 hrs | Leadership has always-on visibility into demo performance |