Welcome to the latest edition of the API product management newsletter, dedicated to helping product teams drive more business value from their APIs and API products.
This week: How much technical knowledge does an API product manager need to succeed in their role? Whatever your answer (and I’d love to hear it), this edition brings a bunch of resources pondering this very question.
But first, a reminder! We only include:
- The top 3 most useful resources we’ve come across the two weeks prior. Any more than that, and we find our browser tabs become unmanageable
- What we find personally useful – and digestible – as product and product marketing managers
- Educational content (whether an article, whitepaper or event). No product pitches – that includes yours truly.
💡The good stuff: This week’s API product management links:
‘Is API Product Management a role or a person?’ – Matthew Reinbold
I really enjoyed this much-needed piece by Matthew Reinbold questioning: Is API Product Management a person, or simply a ‘job to be done’? It also raises a key question: As APIs enter into the realm of the non-technical, is the onus on product managers to learn more about APIs, or on technical engineers to learn more about the product management view? FWIW, I foresee a mix of both, but there’s no doubt that product managers will go further in their roles when they better understand the technical implications behind API product choices.
API Product Management 101: Survival Guide for Non-Technical PMs – Milos Belcevic
This conference talk by Milos Belcevic is the perfect accompaniment to Matthew’s article above, and specifically those Product Managers who want to get better at understanding APIs and API product management. Milos’ talk walks non-tech managers through the business case for APIs, and gives them all they need to navigate API product management in their organisation, from the tech basics to success metrics.
10 critical pieces of knowledge for API Product Managers and API Team leads – Dr Bart Jaworski [LinkedIn post]
This LinkedIn post by Dr Bart Jaworski provides ten quick API product management wins for API product managers. Point one is a great talking point, especially for those smaller API product management teams who have to balance strategising against shipping. And there’s even more tips in the comments section.
♟️ Looking to make a move? Current API product management vacancies:
Senior Product Manager (APIs) – Six (London, UK)
API Product Manager – Compliance.ai (San Francisco, USA)
That’s it for this time. If you found this useful, please consider sharing with someone else who may benefit from it!
💥 Got an article, video or event that belongs on this list? Respond to this email telling us why you think it’s useful to product managers learning about APIs and the API lifecycle. If you’d like a shout-out, please include your Twitter, Github handle or LinkedIn URL and the name you’d like including.
💌 And finally… This newsletter is created by Tyk – API management that accelerates your product development. By signing up to this newsletter you’ll be consenting to receiving the next one (and the one after that), but we will never put you on another list without your *explicit* consent. Read the previous edition here.
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