Main Takeaways: Different type of APIs - Public, Partner, and Private APIs Key focus areas - Value, Platform Strategy, Measure & Grow API adoption Typical journey for building API Products - PayPal Subscriptions as an example

1. API as a Product in 2021 by PayPal Sr PM
www.productschool.com

2. CERTIFICATES
Your Product Management Certificate Path
Product Leadership
Certificate™
Full Stack Product
Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™

3. Corporate
Training
Level up your team’s Product
Management skills

4. Free Product Management Resources
BOOKS
EVENTS
JOB PORTAL
COMMUNITIES
bit.ly/product_resources
COURSES

5. © 2018 PayPal Inc. Confidential and proprietary.

6. 2002 email from Jeff Bezos to all employees
mandating API-first mindset
1) All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality
through service interfaces.
2) Teams must communicate with each other through these
interfaces.
3) There will be no other form of inter-process communication
allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of another team’s data
store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The
only communication allowed is via service interface calls over the
network.
4) It doesn’t matter what technology is used. HTTP, Corba,
Pubsub, custom protocols — doesn’t matter.
5) All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from
the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must
plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in
the outside world. No exceptions.
6) Anyone who doesn’t do this will be fired.
— JEFF BEZOS

7. © 2018 PayPal Inc. Confidential and proprietary.
Types of APIs
Public / Open
(User experience
& monetization)
Partner / 3rd
Party
(Collaboration)
Private
(Foundation)
• Create new product/service offerings
• Participate in an API marketplace
• Promote a seamless data exchange
• Improve business or customer
outcomes
• Improve internal processes
• Enable reusability of common
functionality and single source of data
User
Services
Identity
Services
Data
Services

8. 4
Key Focus for API Product Managers
Strategy Measure & Grow
Value

9. 5
API &
Experience
Experience only
API
only
API Product Development Journey
Discover Define Design Implement Measure
• Market
research
• Target market
definition
• Customer
Need analysis
• Competitive
analysis
• Forecasts
• Story Boards
• Experience
Map
• Use Cases
• Workflow
Diagram
• Personas
• Build
• Test
• Alpha / Beta
Launch
• Release
• Wireframes
• Site Map
• Sketching
• User Testing
• API Hierarchy
• API Specs
• Qualitative
Feedback
• Quantitative
Feedback

10. PayPal Subscriptions
Video Streaming
Service
I-95959
Resource Modeling
1

11. PayPal Subscriptions
Video Streaming
Service
I-95959
Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans
Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate
Resource
Archetypes
URI Design
Domain
Version
Capability Group
Resource Collection
Resource Modeling
1
2

12. PayPal Subscriptions
Video Streaming
Service
I-95959
Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans
Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate
Resource
Archetypes
URI Design
Resource Modeling
Domain
Version
Capability Group
Resource Collection
Operations
GET Get Subscription 200
POST
Create
Cancel, Pause/Resume, Upgrade
200, 201
204
PATCH | PUT Update Subscription 204
DELETE Delete Subscription 204
HTTP method Operations Status Codes
1
2

13. PayPal Subscriptions
Video Streaming
Service
I-95959
Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans
Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate
Resource
Archetypes
URI Design
Resource Modeling
Domain
Version
Capability Group
Resource Collection
Operations
GET Get Subscription 200
POST
Create
Cancel, Pause/Resume, Upgrade
200, 201
204
PATCH | PUT Update Subscription 204
DELETE Delete Subscription 204
HTTP method Operations Status Codes
Error Schema
400 Bad Request
403 Forbidden
404 Not Found
422 Unprocessable Entity
500 Internal Server Error
HTTP method
1
2
3
4

14. 10
GTM Framework
Sandbox Suite Test Case Suite
Troubleshooting
tools
Self-Service Testing
Tools
TEST
ENABLEMENT
External – API Spec
and Sample Code
Internal – API Spec
and Sample Code
Use cases and
Scenarios
DOCUMENTATION
Support Process &
Discussion Forums
Live Monitoring &
Alerts
Troubleshooting
Sandbox Admin
Tools
SUPPORT &
OPERATIONS
SEO, Digital
Marketing
SDK & Localization Training Suite
Demos, Marketing
Collaterals
GO-TO-MARKET
FAQ & Best Practices

15. 11
• Have a good understanding of what and for who you are
building your APIs
• Emphasize on modeling and naming your APIs to mimic real
world business
• Poor documentation is #1 reason for limited adoption
• Follow industry/organization standards and don’t build
isolated specs
• Course correction is very very very expensive!
Key points to keep in mind…
11

16. Say hi
Darshan Raju S
darshan.raju.s@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/darshanrajus

17. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training