Case Study: API Product Management
Integrating diverse applications using the best of API Product Management
Summary
We helped one of our clients (a funded startup in the automobile sector) integrate multiple diverse systems by creating a simple yet effective API (short for Application Programming Interface) Product strategy and getting it implemented seamlessly while it scaled to millions of users.
We helped them with API Product Management and worked with multiple teams (internal and external) to facilitate coordination, project management, training and documentation.
Problem
Our client wanted to build a B2B SaaS chat automation suite in which one of the requirements was to connect Whatsapp API for business so that a 2 way communication could happen between client’s team and customers.
In addition to this, the inbound chat from the customers needed to be first served using an AI bot and on bot failure, chat control would be handed over to the human operator. Finally the operator should be able to view the communication and customer details in the company CRM.
Solution
As the problem required multiple integrations so we decided to take one problem at a high while still keeping the long term goal into perspective.
We started with the Whatsapp Integration by working with Whatsapp Company Representatives to understand their platform. We studied all their API documentation and based on that created PRD’s for our technology team for necessary integrations for 2 way communication.
In parallel we started working with an AI vendor who helped us with the AI Bot training and development. We gave a clear mandate to the vendor for creating an API based solution so that all communication with the AI Bot would happen over REST APIs whose specifications were clearly laid out.
Post Whatsapp integration, we aligned our technology team to integrate AI Bot APIs for an end to end communication between users, AI Bot and Human operators.
In the last phase of the project, we helped the team connect CRM into our Chat automation suit. The internal CRM did not have any API available and was owned by another technology team so we facilitated the coordination between the two engineering teams and helping them with the necessary API requirements.
In all the three integrations we ensured that teams have complete information which included defining
- Rest URL Endpoints
- Rest Methods
- Request and Response Body
- Security and Authentication
- Testing
- API Documentation
- API KPIs
We utilized the best practices of Lean Methodology and Agile Product Development to create a robust solution which could scale to millions of customers. We worked like an extended product management team of the company and owning the project delivery end to end while also managing vendors and chalking out the long term product roadmap for the team.
Some of the tools that we use for product and project management were Trello, JIRA and Confluence, Google Suite, Requestbin and POSTMAN for APIs, Google Hangout for conference calls.
Results
The entire project was delivered as per the management expectation and has a significant impact on the overall Chat Automation Project delivery which in turn led to the reduction of the operational cost by a factor of 3 and improved customer satisfaction by a factor of 5.
The existing team had not worked in a formal API Product Management environment so they got a real value addition through better processes and transparency.
To know more about the project or want to understand the value that we can deliver to you, reach out to us at hello@producthood.com
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