What to Build First — Your 4-Week API Adoption Playbook

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:

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \\
  "<https://customer-api.teamwalnut.com/demo-sessions?start_date=YESTERDAY&end_date=YESTERDAY&user_type=external&fields=demo_name,demo_owner_name,started_at,is_completed,is_bounced,interaction_count,screen_views_count,geo_country_name,lead_form_submitted,origin_url&limit=10000>"

Step 2 — Match to CRM records:

Match StrategyHowBest When
By demo ownerdemo_owner_name → find their open deals in CRMEach rep sends demos to their own deals
By origin URLParse the share link from origin_url → match to CRM activityYou track share links in deal notes
By lead formlead_form_submitted=true sessions have contact info in Walnut → match by emailYou use lead forms on your demos

Step 3 — Write to CRM:

CRMWhere to LogSuggested Approach
HubSpotTimeline event on Deal or ContactUse HubSpot Timeline Events API or create a Note via API
SalesforceCustom object or Task on OpportunityCreate a "Demo Engagement" custom object, or log as a completed Task
Other CRMActivity or NoteMost 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/summarytop_demos)

  • Ranked by session volume
  • Ideally enriched with per-demo completion rate

How

Your ToolApproach
Looker / Tableau / Power BISet 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 + ChartsUse the Apps Script samples from the Code Samples page to pull data into sheets, then build native Google Sheets charts on top.
Notion + AIUse 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:

InitiativeWhat It DoesBuilds On
Re-engagement automationsAuto-notify reps when a prospect bounces from a demo tied to an open dealWeek 2 (alerts) + Week 3 (CRM sync)
Demo A/B testingCompare two versions of a demo by completion rate and engagement using demo_id filteringWeek 4 (dashboard)
Buyer journey mappingTrack how the same prospect engages across multiple demos over timeWeek 3 (CRM sync)
AI-powered insightsConnect via MCP so your team can ask natural-language questions about demo dataAny week — standalone
Data warehouse exportFull historical export into Snowflake/BigQuery for advanced analyticsPagination recipe from Code Samples

Summary

WeekThemeWhat You BuildTimeImpact
1VisibilityDaily Slack/email summary~1 hrTeam sees demo data daily without effort
2ActionHot lead alerts~1–2 hrsReps follow up on high-intent viewers in minutes, not hours
3AttributionCRM sync~3–4 hrsDemo engagement becomes part of deal qualification
4InsightExecutive dashboard~2–3 hrsLeadership has always-on visibility into demo performance

<aside> 💡

You don't have to do all four. If your team's biggest pain is lack of CRM visibility, start with Week 3. If leadership is asking for numbers, jump to Week 4. The order above is a suggestion — pick what moves the needle fastest for your team.

</aside>

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