Event Definitions?

Best Practices for Event Definitions

Empowering Subscribers: Love Thy Subscriber

Good event definitions aren't just about technical accuracy; they are about empowering your subscribers. Empowering subscribers also reduces support overhead and improves customer satisfaction, as they can independently manage their journey without needing constant assistance. Subscribers — whether internal teams, business partners, or end-users — should be given control over their experience. This means enabling them to select the events they care about most and adjust their systems to react accordingly, without needing constant hand-holding.

For example, Q-Flow's approach advocates for giving subscribers clear, concise control over which events they receive, allowing them to tailor their journey while platform owners can stay largely hands-off. Subscriptions can filter for specific Event Types on a Topic, filtering for specific interests or functions, reducing data processing, data minimization, or regulatory concerns. By offering a high degree of customization, you not only make subscribers' lives easier but also reduce unnecessary event noise, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of both the sender and receiver.

Poorly named and lacking context/information

{
  "event_type": "statusChange",
  "event_id": "evt_008",
  "payment_id": "pay_78901",
  "amount": 1500,
  "currency": "USD",
  "timestamp": "2024-11-29T16:00:00Z",
  "status": "changed",
  "customer": "cust_123"
}

Example of a well defined Cloud event

{
  "specversion": "1.0",
  "type": "payment.successful.v1",
  "source": "/services/payment-service",
  "id": "evt_009",
  "time": "2024-11-29T17:00:00Z",
  "subject": "payment/pay_89012",
  "datacontenttype": "application/json",
  "data": {
    "payment_id": "pay_89012",
    "amount": 1500,
    "currency": "USD",
    "status": "successful",
    "customer_id": "cust_456",
    "merchant_id": "merch_12345",
    "payment_method": {
      "type": "credit_card",
      "card_last4": "1234",
      "card_brand": "Visa"
    },
    "metadata": {
      "order_id": "order_67890",
      "description": "Purchase of subscription service",
      "initiated_by": "customer"
    },
    "settlement_details": {
      "expected_settlement_date": "2024-11-30T09:00:00Z",
      "processor": "Stripe"
    }
  }
}

Best Practices for Designing Meaningful Webhook Events

1. Involve Stakeholders Early: Define your event list collaboratively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, such as product managers, customer support, and developers, to ensure they meet real needs.
2. Use a Consistent Naming Convention: Follow a noun-verb structure for clarity and consistency (e.g., "User_Registered").
3. Provide Rich Context: Include relevant metadata to help subscribers understand why an event happened and what they should do next.
4. Think Like Your Subscriber: Ask what events will actually drive value and let subscribers easily choose which events to receive.
5. Test Real Use Cases: Evaluate your events in real-world scenarios — does each one provide the right information, in the right format, to support key workflows?
6. Version Your Events: Make sure your events are versioned correctly to maintain backward compatibility and ensure smooth updates without disrupting existing integrations.

Event Context is Key

A key factor in effective webhook event design is the context of events. Providing context is particularly beneficial for non-technical users, as it helps them understand the purpose and implications of an event without needing deep technical knowledge. Subscribers need to understand the bigger picture — why an event occurred, and what its implications are. Contextual information should be rich enough to help a subscriber decide their next steps.

For example, instead of simply sending Payment_Failed including details such as the reason for failure (e.g., "insufficient funds") and relevant metadata (e.g., payment amount, timestamp, associated account) allows the subscriber to take appropriate action. With well-defined context, they can craft tailored user experiences, such as prompting a retry or offering alternative payment methods.

Clarity Through Naming: The Noun-Verb Structure

Well-defined events help both technical and non-technical stakeholders understand what happened, and contribute to better collaboration between different teams by ensuring everyone has a clear understanding of the system's behavior. This is often achieved through clear naming conventions, which include using a structure that starts with a noun followed by a verb. This convention — such as Order_Created or Subscription_Cancelled — immediately signals which entity (e.g., Order, Subscription) is being acted upon and what action (e.g., Created, Cancelled) took place.

Such clarity not only helps developers easily understand what the event represents, but also aids non-technical stakeholders, such as product managers and customer support teams, in grasping the flow of actions without needing to decode obscure technical jargon. A clear event naming strategy can foster alignment across teams, reducing ambiguity and making sure everyone — from engineering to customer success — is on the same page.

Meaningful events:

• Reduce friction in customer interactions: When events are well-named and provide relevant information, customer support can easily understand what has happened and assist end-users more effectively.

• Improve time-to-market: A clear structure of events makes integrating new partners, systems, or features quicker, as there’s less ambiguity and documentation is clearer.

• Strengthen customer trust: A well-architected webhook system that empowers subscribers demonstrates that your product puts the user experience first, strengthening trust and loyalty.