Software Product Managers drive merchandise to supply enterprise worth. Relating solely to the enterprise and practical requirements- and neglecting to grasp the know-how behind the product- will cripple the Product Supervisor as a substitute of empowering her. In case your software program product makes use of APIs (it’s uncommon to not), then it’s seemingly that your builders use Postman API. (If you happen to’re not fairly positive what an API is — strive this clarification, or many different good ones).
There are concrete advantages for Product Managers to make use of POSTMAN too. First, let’s problem that- shouldn’t that stuff be the accountability of builders, and never people on the enterprise aspect? Isn’t it too detailed for Product Managers? A waste of treasured time?
I argue — No, no, no and no. You do want to make use of it.
After overcoming preliminary hesitation, I’ve discovered it helpful so as to add to my arsenal of instruments. The obstacles of entry are decrease than I anticipated, and there are a number of advantages — communication with builders, engagement in demos and enhanced understanding of your product.
Observe: I’ve no affiliation or vested curiosity with the Postman API firm or product.
It’s a product & service, self described as ‘an API Platform for constructing and utilizing APIs’.
Mainly, it’s a device to have the ability to ‘play with’ your APIs. Say you’ve a software program product that’s a web site that shops photos. The tip-user selects a picture from her pc and provides a reputation, then uploads to the web site. You almost certainly have a microservice that permits just a few strategies: POST (to create), GET (to view the record of photos+names), and DELETE (to delete every entry).
Since you might be an avid agile ninja, you break down your necessities to ship worth as early as attainable. First, you ask for creation and viewing, and provide deletion solely at a later stage. Even later, you’ll be able to provide to edit the title or picture.
When your builders create a microservice (or mockup), they can provide you entry to it through a postman assortment. You have to entry to a goal atmosphere + credentials. Then, you need to use the POSTMAN API interface to see what strategies can be found within the assortment. Within the first part of improvement, you will note ‘POST’ and ‘GET’ strategies. You should use this to create entries (photos+title), and see that it really works. After creating at the least one entry (picture+title), you need to use the ‘GET’ technique to record every of the entries that you just created. All this, is earlier than there may be any front-end improvement; earlier than there’s a display or buttons which have been developed.
Perceive your product
In a product that includes front-end and back-end, delving into postman gave me a extra holistic understanding. I might higher admire the mapping from API to UI. This helps me change into a greater product supervisor by way of breaking down the product into phases, writing clearer necessities, planning the scope of releases, and extra. It helps me perceive higher the right way to design the front-end, additionally.
Guarantee what you anticipated is being constructed
This can be a technique to detect miscommunications earlier fairly than later. For instance, you could have needed to assist the creation of photos with out names. Possibly you even wrote clear necessities for that. Nevertheless, this was missed in improvement. Whenever you ‘play with’ POSTMAN, you’ll be able to attempt to create a picture and not using a title. The postman product makes this sort of factor simple — so as to add change or take away parameters within the request. And while you accomplish that, you may even see that the creation failed. You’ll be able to ask your developer why, and clear this up earlier fairly than later. The developer will inform you that, certainly, she launched validation for title as a required discipline, as a result of that was not clear sufficient out of your written requirement.
Understanding edge circumstances
Utilizing postman helped me higher perceive when the product was really in-built a method that will assist my enterprise necessities, and after we could run into some points; what use circumstances can be supported, and edge circumstances that will not be supported. Understanding this made be higher capable of talk this to related stakeholders — builders, technical documentation writers, and extra.
Write clearer necessities subsequent time, together with acceptance standards
By really enjoying with APIs of my product, I might later write extra detailed and correct necessities for extra superior options of the product. This contains higher writing detailed acceptance checks, and use circumstances that I have to be demonstrated in subsequent options.
Contribution to demos
For merchandise/options which are absolutely Again-end with no front-end, it is vitally laborious to ‘demo’ the completion of the function. It’s normal follow, then, to make use of POSTMAN to supply a reside demo that the required performance has been developed. Earlier than I started utilizing POSTMAN, I admittedly had a tough time following these demos. Since I started to make use of POSTMAN myself, I used to be capable of comply with significantly better, and even contribute to the demos. As soon as, for example, I seen {that a} explicit parameter was mistaken. There have been some difficult use circumstances, and developer presenting, together with tech lead and others, had been a bit caught. Since I outlined the function and knew it properly, and since I knew the right way to use POSTMAN, I used to be capable of level out what parameter wanted to be modified with a purpose to receive the specified end result within the demo, and reveal that the use case was certainly supported.
Thanks for studying!
I’m a UX Designer turned Product Supervisor, with expertise in startups, freelance, and agile B2B2C corporations. Writing helps me replicate & constantly study. Join with me on Twitter.
