API PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
HELPING MORE PEOPLE MORE
Dr. Amancio Bouza
APIDays Zurich, 2019

Author of
“API Product Management – Product
Strategy and Execution for the Digital
Economy”
https://leanpub.com/apiproductmanagement
Your 1st Follower of Crazy Ideas
2
Dr. Amancio Bouza, Principal Consultant at ipt

Once upon a time,
when I was in
5th grade…
3

4

MINDSET:
DECISIONS NEED CONSENT
DECISIONS MUST BE RIGHT
5

SWISS RED CROSS PROVIDES 30 SERVICES!
6 Source: https://www.redcross.ch

WE FOCUS ON ONE SERVICE:
ASSISTED TRANSPORT
7

WHAT IS AT STAKE?
8

CUSTOMER BASE
9

CUSTOMER BASE
10
TOOYOUNG
TOOYOUNG

CUSTOMER BASE
11
TOOYOUNG
TOOYOUNG
DIEOUT

12 Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/what-do-young-people-care-about-we-asked-26-000-of-them/

CUSTOMER BASE
13
TOOYOUNG
TOOYOUNG
DIEOUT

CUSTOMER BASE
14
TOOYOUNG
TOOYOUNG
DIEOUT
OTHERPRIORITIES

NO SUSTAINABLE
CUSTOMER BASE!
15

At least, NGO’s don’t
#GETUBERFIED
16

At least, NGO’s don’t
#GETUBERFIED
17

18 Source: https://www.uber.com/de-CH/ride/uberwav/

IN THE LAST 15 YEARS
52% OF FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES
HAVE GONE EXTINCT
19 Source: Innosight

NOW WHAT?
20

TEAM
21 Source: https://www.computerworld.ch/business/business-it/srk-erfolgreich-am-hackathon-ipt-1548337.html
ANJA
MARCIN
AMANCIO
DANIEL
CDO at
Swiss Red Cross

MISSION:
22
DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
& ECOSYSTEMS
API PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
HELP MORE
PEOPLE MORE

MISSION:
23
DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
& ECOSYSTEMS
API PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
HELP MORE
PEOPLE MORE

24 Source: Amancio Bouza & Andrea Zulian, APIDays Paris 2018

1. VALUE CHAIN
Digitalization
25

DESIGN SPRINT
26

27
PAIN POINT:
RAPPORTS
DRIVERS fill out multiple rapport
forms for each transport

28
PAIN POINT:
RAPPORTS
EMPLOYEES enter
rapports into applications

API SOLUTION:
RAPPORT API
Create Rapports
{startTime,
distanceKM,
duration}
29
RAPPORT APP

Rapport API is an API solution
that helps to digitalize a
business process.
Cost savings without potential
for novel business models
30 Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/two-breeds-of-api-api-products-and-api-solutions-fa726213ecea

HOW TO BUILD THE API, NOT!
31
Inside-out!
Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/value-proposition-interface-canvas-d60fa7553d23

API is not about solving
a Rubik’s Cube
32

HOW TO BUILD THE API, NOT!
33 Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/value-proposition-interface-canvas-d60fa7553d23

“Ultimately, the API is the
Interface to the Value Proposition,
not to the Application”
34 Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/api-dead-long-live-vpi-amancio-bouza/

35
The 2nd Breed of API:
API Product
Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/two-breeds-of-api-api-products-and-api-solutions-fa726213ecea

2. PLATFORM-LED
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
36

WHY
API PRODUCT?
37

“3.6 million Americans
miss their appointments due to
a lack of reliable transportation”
38
Uber Health
Source: https://www.uberhealth.com/about

0.085 M miss appointment in Switzerland
$135/15min cost of missed appointment
$11.5 M total loss because of missed appointments
Source: https://www.expatistan.com/price/doctor/zurich
39
“3.6 million Americans
miss their appointments due to
a lack of reliable transportation”
USA
Population: 327.2 M
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
SWITZERLAND
Population: 8.5 M
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
3.6 M miss appointment in the USA =>
Source: https://www.uberhealth.com/about

$ 11.5 MARE LOST BECAUSE OF
MISSED APPOINTMENTS
40

LET’S GIVE THEM $11.5 M
AND CHARGE A FRICTION, E.G.,
$1’000’00041

CHF '1.00
CHF 200'001.00
CHF 400'001.00
CHF 600'001.00
CHF 800'001.00
Rapport App (API Solution) Transport Care (API Product)
API PRODUCT BEATS API SOLUTION
42
Revenue
$1’000’000
Revenue
$200’000
5x
Source: https://www.digital.redcross.ch/: Assumption: 12 customers, 1000 drivers => $204k

HOW TO BUILD
API PRODUCT?
43

Director Product Management at Amazon in Seattle
44
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6392958411058798592
Continuous Innovation Workshop
Outlearn Your Competition and
Build Products That Matter.

45
Lean Startup
Build-Measure-Learn Cycle
Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/lean-api-product-development-3f2787e2f941

META PROCESS
46
Problem-Solution Fit
validate qualitatively
Product-Market Fit
verify quantitatively
Scale
Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/lean-api-product-development-3f2787e2f941

LEAN API PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
47
Problem-Solution Fit
validate qualitatively
Product-Market Fit
verify quantitatively
Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/lean-api-product-development-3f2787e2f941

FROM
INSIDE-OUT
TO OUTSIDE-IN
48

VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS
49 Alex Osterwalder: Value Proposition Canvas: https://medium.com/api-product-management/value-proposition-interface-canvas-d60fa7553d23

VALUE PROPOSITION INTERFACE CANVAS
50 Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/value-proposition-interface-canvas-d60fa7553d23

API-as-a-Product
UBER for assisted transport
TRANSPORT CARE

API PRODUCT:
TRANSPORT CARE
Manage Transports
{startTime,
distanceKM,
duration}
52
ASSISTED TRANSPORT
APP

API PRODUCT VISION BOARD: TRANSPORT CARE
Regional Swiss Red Cross
associations (i.e., KVs)
Small local NGOs: Spitex &
Nachbarschaftshilfe
Travel Agencies/Industry?
Medical Facilities
Business Goals (SRK)
Help more people more
Standardization of Assisted
Transport
Volunteer satisfaction and
lifetime value
API economy for Platform
Stay relevant for Next Gen.
Reduce effort for rapporting
and controlling
Help customers to travel from
A to B
Volunteer appreciation
Use the time of doctors most
efficient
Needs
Business Context
Adjacent Product: Supports
Fahrdienst service
Digitalize and scale existing
Assisted Transport service
Get patients on time, no delay
or missed appointments
Simple management and
coordination of transports
Data-driven volunteer
appreciation (e.g., stats)
Value Proposition
Benefits
Time saving for rapport
controlling and increased
quality
Simple management of
transports, less phone calls
Improved volunteer
experience
Manage and organize
transports
Get real-time transport info
(e.g., transport distance)
Volunteer and transport
analytics
Features
Costs
Continuous API management
lifecycle and Integration
Operations and Customer
Support
Customer

Volunteer Appreciation
Use volunteer’s stats for personalized
appreciation and show volunteer’s
impact.
Cost Reduction
Effortless rapporting and controlling. Less
effort for call center because of instant
transport request
Standardized Transport Service
Efficiency and focus on one best
transport service. Be where the
customer is API Economy and become
part of the customer journey.
Volunteer Experience
Volunteering without administration
Fault Prevention
Trust volunteers. Uncommon rapports
are automatically identified and flagged
for manual inspection.
BENEFITS
The 5 Key Benefits of
Transport Care for the
Swiss Red Cross
PAINRELIEVERSGAINCREATORS

KPI OF API PRODUCT SUCCESS:
MEASUREMENT OF
HOW WELL THE API PRODUCT DELIVERS ON
THE VALUE PROPOSITION
55

TRANSPORT CARE: TOTAL NUMBER OF MINUTES DELAYED
56 Source: https://medium.com/api-product-management/value-proposition-interface-canvas-d60fa7553d23

API PRODUCT:
TRANSPORT CARE
Manage Transports
{startTime,
distanceKM,
duration}
57
ASSISTED TRANSPORT
APP

API PRODUCT:
TRANSPORT CARE
Manage Transports
{startTime,
distanceKM,
duration,
expectedDeliveryTime,
deliveryTime}
58
ASSISTED TRANSPORT
APP
Extend API
Specification to
facilitate analytics

GOAL-ORIENTED ROADMAP: TRANSPORT CARE
Q2/2019 Q3/2019 tbd tbd
V1 (MVP) V1.1 V2 V3
Reduce effort of SRK employee to
check rapports
Full management of transports Smart Alert for uncommon
distance and duration data
Enable coordination between SRK,
volunteer, and beneficiary
● Retrieve transports assigned
to a driver
● Get details about a
transport
● Update transport with
rapport relevant info (e.g.,
distance, duration)
● Attach expenses to a
transport
● Create new transports
● Assign transport to a
volunteer
● Retrieve all transports
● Filter all transports based on
status
● Identify uncommon
transport rapports
● Notify employee for manual
inspection
● Get personal stats of current
year
● Get stats of all volunteers
assigned to a KV or other
customers
● Effort of rapport checks
reduced by 50%
● # of not-in-time rapports
decreased by 50%
● Transport coordination and
disposition reduced by 50%
95% of uncommon rapports
identified
# of usages in volunteer
appreciations
# of social media shares

RELEASE BACKLOG & IDEAS
Goal
Why is this release built
Features
What are the top features of the release
Metric
How is success of the release measured?
Self-Service to save administration
effort
● Get details of a volunteer
● Update volunteer info
● 50% of info mutations (e.g., address change)
are done by volunteers them self
● 80% of new volunteers use self-service
Smart Expenses ● Expense costs are automatically retrieved from expense
attachment (OCR, Deep Learning)
● Costs are correctly extracted from 90% of
expenses
Expense Management ● Upload expense tickets for a specific transport
● Retrieve expense tickets
● Delete expense ticket
● Create expense ticket
● 80% of expenses are submitted via App or API
Smart Alert ● Distance estimation of transport
● Duration estimation of transport
● Identification of unexpected and significant difference
between estimated and reported values
Real-Time Intelligence ● Real-Time Monitoring of transports, distance, and
duration

3. ECOSYSTEMS
61

62 Source: https://www.fiveup.org/

63

“Vereinte Kompetenzen: Mit FlixBus und Uber von Tür zu Tür reisen“
64 Source: https://www.uber.com/de/blog/uber-flixbus-partnerschaft/

WRAP UP
65

PYRAMIDE OF DIGITALIZATION
66
3. TRANSPORT CARE
2. RAPPORT API
1. RAPPORT APP

API PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
67 Source: http://api-as-a-product.com/

TAKE AWAYS
1. API is not about Integration
2. API is the Interface to a Value Proposition
3. Build API Products, not APIs. Ask: Is it the best possible service?
4. Good KPI shows how well an API product delivers on the value proposition
5. Understand the customer journey and build the ecosystem around it.
5th Element: Customer Obsession
68

Get in touch
69

#WHO
Amancio Bouza, PhD
Intrapreneur, API & AI Enthusiast, Speaker & Author
Principal Consultant at ipt
Let’s connect:
https://ch.linkedin.com/in/amanciobouza
Follow me:
https://twitter.com/AmancioBouza

BACK
UP
71

TRANSPORT CARE APIs
Latest Version: https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis-docs/amanciobouza/Transport/1.0.0#/
More at the SRK API Developer Portal: https://developer.redcross.ch/

API STAKEHOLDERS
73

VALUE PROPOSITION INTERFACE
74

WHAT IS AN API?
75

CONTINUOUS
INNOVATION

77

78

“Our success at Amazon
is a function of how many
experiments we run every
year, month, week, and days.”
– Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon
79

NUMBER OF EXPERIEMENTS PER YEAR
80
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
Netflix Intuit Amazon P&G Google Facebook
Experiments
100k+

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