API Conference, Berlin 2018 - Product Management for Engineers

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.

Transcript

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