As we try to build APIs that are valuable, usable, and feasible, are there lessons we can learn from Product Management and how we approach this? This session will be a fun look at some anecdotes and cautionary tales shared by Product Managers, and reflect how they can help our thinking when designing and building APIs. The concept of "APIs as a Product" and the need for a Product Manager for APIs is a growing trend (in 2017 Thoughtworks added an entry tracking the idea to their Tech Radar) – so what exactly does this mean? And what can we learn from Product Management? From dog psychology experiments to lessons from Netflix, we will take a whistle-stop tour through the discipline to look at what we can learn that might help us build great APIs.

1. Your API as a Product

2. Who am I?
➔ CTO @ LegalTech startup
BasementCrowd.com
➔ Not a Product Manager!
➔ Find me here:
rob_hinds
robhinds

3. What does it all mean?

4. What is a product manager?
© 2011 Martin Eriksson mindtheproduct.com

7. build APIs
needs of their
customers product
compelling to them
ThoughtWorks Technology Radar

8. product orientation is the
missing ingredient
ordinary
enterprise
business built on a platform of
APIs
ThoughtWorks Technology Radar

9. Lessons from PMs part 1:

10. Don’t make me think
➔ Create Visual Hierarchies
➔ Use conventions
➔ Break up the page into clearly defined sections
➔ Make it clear and obvious what is “clickable”

11. ➔ The most important characteristics of good
design are discoverability
& understanding
➔ Stop thinking of it as “Human Error”
The design of everyday things

12. How would you open this
door?

13. ➔ What happens if you make your customers
think?
➔ Cognitive load, decision fatigue and giving up
➔ Can we make users awesome instead?
Making Users Awesome

14. Don’t make me think

15. Group B were 50% more likely to choose cake
7 digits

16. Make me awesome

17. A better version of you

19. Lessons so far:
❏ Don’t make me think!
❏ Create a visual hierarchy
❏ Use conventions
❏ Make it clear what is “clickable”
❏ Simplicity
❏ Understanding & Discoverability
❏ Make users awesome

23. A visual hierarchy, that can
be understood and navigated
Use of repeating conventions:
{ENTITY}/{IDs}
{ENTITY}/{IDs}/{CHILD_ENTITY}

24. Simple,consistent responses
to all API requests

25. APIs that make me eat cake

26. { code: 422 }

28. GET /volumes
POST /volumes/create
GET /images/json
POST /images/create
POST /build

29. Andrew Jordan, Senior Product @ Twilio

30. Developer
Product manager
Business user
Andrew Jordan, Senior Product @ Twilio

31. awesome

32. painful daunting

33. awesome
Things Just Work

34. awesome
quickly easily

35. End game isn’t a working API
awesome
your API
and raving about it

36. developers talk..

37. Lessons from PMs part 2:

39. (not actually Henry Ford, but still..)

40. You know those balls that they put on car
antennas so you can find them in the parking lot?
Those should be on every car!
Homer Simpson, Oh brother, where art thou

41. 60%
Percentage of cars sold in the US in 1921 by Ford

42. 15%
Percentage of cars sold in the US in 1927 by Ford

44. “Can’t you just add in a
new endpoint that
returns everything for
this page? it’ll just be
easier that way”

45. /questions
/questions/{id}/answers

46. Lessons from PMs part 3:

49. vs

51. ● Goes against established web standards (HTTP methods, REST)
● Clashes with years of web technology (caching)
● Solves a problem & growing adoption

52. Conclusion
❏ We are all building products!
❏ Product thinking is for everyone!
❏ Keep it simple, make customers awesome
❏ Don’t do whatever is asked, try to understand the root problem
❏ Don’t keep doing things because of tradition
❏ But there is a premium for changing standards! (both for tech & customers)

54. References
https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2011/10/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/
https://youtu.be/6f7glXySqvg
https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast
http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat
https://vimeo.com/131407754 Kathy Sierra Mind The Product conference talk
https://vimeo.com/107049461 Dave Wascha Mind the Product conference talk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F
https://docs.docker.com/engine/api/v1.24/
https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/techniques/apis-as-a-product
https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2017/08/gibson-biddle-wicked-hard-decisions-netflix/
https://www.cnet.com/news/blockbuster-laughed-at-netflix-partnership-offer/
https://vimeo.com/141675862 Ken Norton MTPCon Kodak
https://hbr.org/2016/07/kodaks-downfall-wasnt-about-technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi21ymFlQE4 API Design: AndrewJordan

55. Photo credits
Light bulb Photo by Sean Patrick Murphy on Unsplash
Turntable Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash
Drilling Photo by Matt Antonioli on Unsplash
Kathy Sierra Photo at MTP Conference 2014
mindtheproduct.com
Cake Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Donuts Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Kodak Photo by Adam Birkett on Unsplash
Questions Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash
Skateboarding Photo by Kirk Morales on Unsplash
Listen to Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash
Car Photo by Paweł Kozak on Unsplash
Skeleton Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
Coding Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Developer Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
Pencils on yellow Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash
Happy developers Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
Lemons Photo by Nery Montenegro on Unsplash