API as a Product in 2021 by PayPal Sr PM

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© 2018 PayPal Inc. Confidential and proprietary.
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
Types of APIs

Public / Open • Create new product/service offerings

(User experience • Participate in an API marketplace
& monetization)

• Promote a seamless data exchange

rd
Partner / 3 Party
• Improve business or customer
(Collaboration)
outcomes

• Improve internal processes User Identity

Private Services Services
• Enable reusability of common
(Foundation) functionality and single source of data Data
Services

© 2018 PayPal Inc. Confidential and proprietary.

Key Focus for API Product Managers

Value Strategy Measure & Grow

4
API Product Development Journey

Discover Define Design Implement Measure

• Market • Story Boards • Wireframes • Build • Qualitative

research • Experience • Site Map • Test Feedback
• Target market Map • Sketching • Alpha / Beta • Quantitative
definition • Use Cases • User Testing Launch Feedback
• Customer • Workflow • Release
Need analysis Diagram • API Hierarchy
• Competitive • Personas • API Specs
analysis
• Forecasts
API &
Experience only
API 5
only
 PayPal Subscriptions

Resource Modeling

Video Streaming
Service

I-95959
 PayPal Subscriptions

Resource Modeling

Video Streaming
Service

I-95959

2
URI Design

Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans
Resource
Archetypes Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate
Domain
Version
Capability Group
Resource Collection
 PayPal Subscriptions HTTP method Operations Status Codes

GET Get Subscription 200

Create 200, 201
POST
Operations Cancel, Pause/Resume, Upgrade 204
PATCH | PUT Update Subscription 204
DELETE Delete Subscription 204

Resource Modeling

Video Streaming
Service

I-95959

2
URI Design

Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans
Resource
Archetypes Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate
Domain
Version
Capability Group
Resource Collection
 PayPal Subscriptions HTTP method Operations Status Codes

3 GET Get Subscription 200

Create 200, 201
POST
Operations Cancel, Pause/Resume, Upgrade 204
PATCH | PUT Update Subscription 204
DELETE Delete Subscription 204

Resource Modeling

Video Streaming
Service

I-95959

2
URI Design

Collection: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans HTTP method

Resource
Archetypes Document: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234
Controller: https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans/P-1234/activate 400 Bad Request
Domain 403 Forbidden
Version 4 Error Schema 404 Not Found
Capability Group
422 Unprocessable Entity
Resource Collection
500 Internal Server Error
GTM Framework

TEST Sandbox Suite Test Case Suite

Troubleshooting Self-Service Testing
ENABLEMENT tools Tools

External – API Spec Internal – API Spec Use cases and

DOCUMENTATION and Sample Code and Sample Code Scenarios
FAQ & Best Practices

SUPPORT & Support Process & Live Monitoring &

Troubleshooting
Sandbox Admin
OPERATIONS Discussion Forums Alerts Tools

SEO, Digital Demos, Marketing

GO-TO-MARKET Marketing
SDK & Localization Training Suite
Collaterals

10
Key points to keep in mind…

• 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!

11 11
Say hi

Darshan Raju S
darshan.raju.s@gmail.com

linkedin.com/in/darshanrajus
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training

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