How to strategically approach development and management of API Products as a PM

Developing and managing API products effectively is a crucial aspect of building successful digital applications and platforms. This article provides valuable insights and strategic guidance for product managers navigating the world of API development. So without wasting any time let’s jump into it.

Design for consumption

While designing API products, it is always important to take an "outside-in" approach and design the APIs, keeping the developer experience in mind. Rather than building an API just to meet the requirements of a specific project, the API should be prioritized for ease of use, consistent design patterns, comprehensive documentation, and flexibility for future expansion.

As a PM, you should always avoid over-engineering or prematurely defining future use cases. Instead, strive to create a flexible, extensible base that can be iterated upon based on developer feedback.

Leverage API Management Tools

Visibility into API performance, user behaviour, and consumption patterns is essential for product managers building an API product. It is essential to use platforms that provide real-time analytics and monitoring capabilities to track critical metrics like API call volumes, response times, error rates, and usage by developer or application. This data allows you to identify performance bottlenecks, detect anomalies or abuse, and understand how the APIs are actually being leveraged in production.

Beyond just collecting raw usage statistics, API management platforms also provide solutions to govern and optimize your API lifecycle. This can include automatically implementing security policies, managing API versioning and deprecation, and generating comprehensive documentation. Investing in the right API management tech stack gives you the insights and controls to make informed, data-driven decisions about your API products.

Optimize API Exposure

Position your API team as an internal "refinery" - taking the raw data and capabilities from your backend systems and refining them into high-quality, consumable API products. This centralized, productized approach has several benefits, including the ability to establish consistent design patterns, security controls, and documentation across all your exposed APIs. This creates a cohesive developer experience rather than a hodgepodge of one-off project integrations.

Additionally, by sitting between the backend and API consumers, you can analyze usage data and make informed decisions about which capabilities to expose, how to optimize performance, and what new features to prioritize. This product management mindset helps ensure the APIs continue delivering maximum value. 

Finally, this gatekeeper role allows you to carefully manage the lifecycle of individual APIs. You can deprecate outdated versions, experiment with monetization models, and navigate breaking changes—all while insulating your backend systems from direct developer access.

Embracing the API team as an optimization layer rather than just a conduit unlocks significant efficiency and strategic benefits.

Embrace Agile & Automation

Instead of focusing on the traditional project mindset of exhaustive upfront planning, as a product manager, you should aim to release minimum viable APIs quickly and gather user feedback to improve the products continuously. This faster, more responsive approach allows you to experiment with new ideas, identify winning use cases and deliver more excellent business value.

To align your product lifecycle with an agile development process, you must automate key activities like testing and deployment. As a PM, you should work closely with the engineering team to develop robust CI/CD pipelines that allow APIs to be validated and released rapidly in response to evolving user needs.4. Use an image and “subscribe” buttons

Define Ownership & Delegate:

Successful APIs require a dedicated, cross-functional team to oversee the entire lifecycle. As the Product Manager, you'll likely work closely with the API architect and developer roles.

The architect is responsible for the high-level API design and implementation, ensuring adherence to best practices and standards. They deeply understand your backend systems and how to expose that functionality through consumable APIs.

The API developer, on the other hand, is the hands-on engineer building out the actual API products. Beyond just coding, they contribute to developer-facing resources like documentation and samples. Strong web development and API management skills are a must.

Delineating these responsibilities and aligning them under common goals and metrics helps streamline cross-team collaboration. It also ensures that the technical execution aligns with the overarching product vision and business strategy.

Implement Consistent Governance:

While we have talked about lightweight, agile governance, it doesn't mean skimping on critical areas like security and access control. As a Product Manager, you should work cross-functionally to establish a consistent set of policies and protocols that apply across all APIs. This might include enforcing authentication mechanisms like OAuth/OpenID Connect, implementing transport layer encryption, and setting usage quotas to protect against abuse.

Standardizing these elements enhances the overall security posture and streamlines the developer experience - they only have to learn and integrate with these patterns once across your entire API ecosystem. Consistency is also vital for documentation, testing, and deployment processes. By automating these activities and aligning them with your agile software development lifecycle, you can significantly reduce friction and time-to-market for new API releases.