apidays New York 2025 - Lessons From Two Technical Transformations by Leah Hurwich Adler (Apollo GraphQL)

You Can't Outrun Complexity - But You Can Orchestrate It: Lessons From Two Technical Transformations
Leah Hurwich Adler, Senior Staff Product Manager at Apollo GraphQL

apidays New York 2025
API Management for Surfing the Next Innovation Waves: GenAI and Open Banking
May 14 & 15, 2025

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Transcript

1. You Can’t Outrun Complexity - But You Can Orchestrate it: Lessons from Two Technical Transformations Leah Hurwich Adler Product Manager, Apollo GraphQL https://www.apollographql.com/
2. This presentation will focus on how to execute a flawless, high-value technical transformation Learn how: → Technical execution is not the same as business outcomes → Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication → Federated systems like GraphQL help you move fast and prepare for your next transformation
3. Same PM, Same Industry vs. The “Startup” • Amazon competitor with ~12M SKUs The “Retailer” • Fortune 500 company with ~13M SKUs
4. Same PM, Same Industry vs. The “Startup” • Amazon competitor with ~12M SKUs • 2 year old startup with 1,000+ employees The “Retailer” • Fortune 500 company with ~13M SKUs • 20 year old company with 10,000+ employees
5. Same PM, Same Industry vs. The “Startup” • Amazon competitor with ~12M SKUs • 2 year old startup with 1,000+ employees • Positioned as tech company in e-commerce The “Retailer” • Fortune 500 company with ~13M SKUs • 20 year old company with 10,000+ employees • Positioned as an online retail company
6. Same PM, Same Industry vs. The “Startup” • Amazon competitor with ~12M SKUs • 2 year old startup with 1,000+ employees • Positioned as tech company in e-commerce • Infrastructure built to scale: distributed systems using an eventbus architecture The “Retailer” • Fortune 500 company with ~13M SKUs • 20 year old company with 10,000+ employees • Positioned as an online retail company • Infrastructure built as a workhorse: a largely untouched PHP monolithic architecture
7. Same PM, Same Industry, Similar Urgency → The Startup: Post-acquisition, startup founders wanted to demonstrate value of technology to ensure continued investment → The Retailer: Developer velocity plateaued and site performance kept regressing, interim-CTO mandated decoupling The Impetus: Platform-ize or Become Obsolete
8. Same PM, Same Industry, Similar Urgency → The Startup: Post-acquisition, startup founders wanted to demonstrate value of technology to ensure continued investment → The Retailer: Developer velocity plateaued and site performance kept regressing, interim-CTO mandated decoupling The Impetus: Platform-ize or Become Obsolete Target Timeline: Three Months
9. The Impetus: Platform-ize or Become Obsolete Target Timeline: Three Months The Startup The Retailer Actual Duration 3 months > 2 years Rollout 2 days, 0 downtime Months, regularly hit error limits Business Value No traction, left unused +$5M revenue; +3.6% Add to Cart rates; 100 min reduction in deploy times Same PM, Same Industry, Similar Urgency - Radically different results
10. The Impetus: Platform-ize or Become Obsolete Target Timeline: Three Months The Startup The Retailer Actual Duration 3 months > 2 years Rollout 2 days, 0 downtime Months, regularly hit error limits Business Value No traction, left unused +$5M revenue; +3.6% Add to Cart rates; 100 min reduction in deploy times Same PM, Same Industry, Similar Urgency - Radically different results
11. Same PM, Same Industry, Similar Urgency - Radically different results The Impetus: Platform-ize or Become Obsolete Target Timeline: Three Months The Startup The Retailer Actual Duration 3 months > 2 years Rollout 2 days, 0 downtime Months, regularly hit error limits Business Value No traction, left unused +$5M revenue; +3.6% Add to Cart 100 min reduction in deploy times
12. Lesson 1: Business Value Trumps Architectural Maturity Find your shortest path to demonstrating value: Profit = Revenue - Costs Default assumption
13. Lesson 1: Business Value Trumps Architectural Maturity Find your shortest path to demonstrating value: Profit = Revenue - Costs Actual potential
14. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time
15. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication The Startup New CTO and his staff The Retailer Organizational leaders responsible for their roadmaps Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time
16. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication The Startup CTO staff were unknown entities with unclear priorities. The Retailer Had shared context developed over years. We knew leaders valued site speed over dev velocity. Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time
17. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication The Startup We had one shot to demonstrate value. Presented a compelling demo to make the value real. The Retailer Published weekly updates, leveraging frameworks we knew would resonate. Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time
18. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time Source: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/3.4-chapter-13 Helpful framework: work is like a hill
19. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Identify the decision makers, speak to their needs, and build trust over time Source: https://experiencestack.co/demystifying-product-adoption-afbdeef2bcc9 Helpful framework: Adoption curve
20. Lesson 3: Strong Foundations and API design enable speed and extensibility The Startup Microservice + eventbus architecture let the team parallelize across 5 workstreams The Retailer 20 yr old spaghetti code monolith made it hard to divide and conquer. You can only innovate as fast as your architecture allows
21. Lesson 3: Strong Foundations and API design enable speed and extensibility The Startup Clear API contracts made it possible to reason about sequencing across teams The Retailer No APIs meant no clear dependency map or ownership boundaries You can only innovate as fast as your architecture allows
22. GraphQL Federation is a natural choice for driving value and adapting to change Federation can increase revenue AND reduce costs through improved performance and a more modular architecture. Lesson 1 Business Value Trumps Maturity
23. GraphQL Federation is a natural choice for driving value and adapting to change Federation can increase revenue AND reduce costs through improved performance and a more modular architecture. Lesson 1 Business Value Trumps Maturity Insights, governance tools, and schema directives provide visibility and control creating trust. Lesson 2 Stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication
24. GraphQL Federation is a natural choice for driving value and adapting to change Federation can increase revenue AND reduce costs through improved performance and a more modular architecture. Lesson 1 Business Value Trumps Maturity Insights, governance tools, and schema directives provide visibility and control creating trust. Lesson 2 Stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Federated architectures enable teams to safely and independently evolve their domain. Lesson 3 Strong API design enables speed and extensibility
25. Establish governance and collaboration best practices Invest in API orchestration Define domain boundaries Get stakeholder buy-in AI is rapidly changing the industry - Is your system ready?
26. Establish governance and collaboration best practices Invest in API orchestration Define domain boundaries Get stakeholder buy-in AI is rapidly changing the industry - Is your system ready? To learn more about Apollo GraphQL and how it can help you move fast and future proof your architecture: • Visit https://www.apollographql.com/ • Find me on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-hurwich-a dler
27. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication In ways they understand Building trust over time Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers Alternative approach
28. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication In ways they understand Building trust over time Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers The Startup New CTO and his staff The Retailer Organizational leaders responsible for the roadmap vs. Alternative approach
29. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication In ways they understand Building trust over time Identify the decision makers The Startup CTO staff had unclear priorities. Our only context was what was shared post-acquisition. The Retailer Leaders valued site speed over dev velocity. We had shared context into past incidents and company data. vs. Speak to their needs What do the decision makers care about? Alternative approach
30. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication In ways they understand Building trust over time Identify the decision makers The Startup Platform framed as an opportunity. The Retailer Initial discussions focused on page performance. vs. Speak to their needs Alternative approach
31. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Building trust over time Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers The Startup Presented a compelling demo to make the value real. The Retailer Leveraged analogies, data, and image-heavy slides to explain progress and value. vs. In ways they understand Alternative approach
32. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Building trust over time Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers Common framework: 01 problem In ways they understand Alternative approach
33. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Building trust over time Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers Common framework: Adoption journey In ways they understand Alternative approach
34. Lesson 2: Maintained stakeholder buy-in relies on strong communication Speak to their needs Identify the decision makers The Startup CTO was an unknown entity. We had one shot to demonstrate value. The Retailer We already had relationships with our stakeholders. Weekly udpates demonstrated our ability to execute. vs. In ways they understand Building trust over time Alternative approach