Software Product Managers drive merchandise to offer enterprise worth. Relating solely to the enterprise and purposeful requirements- and neglecting to know 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 doubtless that your builders use Postman API. (If you happen to’re not fairly certain what an API is — attempt 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 of us on the enterprise facet? 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 limitations 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.
Notice: 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’.
Principally, it’s a software to have the ability to ‘play with’ your APIs. Say you’ve got a software program product that’s a web site that shops photographs. The top-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 photographs+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 doable. First, you ask for creation and viewing, and supply deletion solely at a later stage. Even later, you may supply to edit the identify or picture.
When your builders create a microservice (or mockup), they can provide you entry to it by way of a postman assortment. You will have entry to a goal atmosphere + credentials. Then, you should utilize the POSTMAN API interface to see what strategies can be found within the assortment. Within the first part of growth, you will notice ‘POST’ and ‘GET’ strategies. You should utilize this to create entries (photographs+identify), and see that it really works. After creating not less than one entry (picture+identify), you should utilize the ‘GET’ technique to record every of the entries that you just created. All this, is earlier than there’s any front-end growth; earlier than there’s a display screen 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 recognize the mapping from API to UI. This helps me turn 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 learn how to design the front-end, additionally.
Guarantee what you anticipated is being constructed
This can be a method to detect miscommunications earlier quite than later. For instance, you might have needed to assist the creation of photographs with out names. Possibly you even wrote clear necessities for that. Nevertheless, this was neglected in growth. Whenever you ‘play with’ POSTMAN, you may attempt to create a picture and not using a identify. The postman product makes this type of factor straightforward — so as to add change or take away parameters within the request. And once you accomplish that, you might even see that the creation failed. You’ll be able to ask your developer why, and clear this up earlier quite than later. The developer will inform you that, certainly, she launched validation for identify as a required subject, as a result of that was not clear sufficient out of your written requirement.
Understanding edge instances
Utilizing postman helped me higher perceive when the product was really in-built a method that may assist my enterprise necessities, and after we could run into some points; what use instances can be supported, and edge instances that may 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 taking part in 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 instances that I should be demonstrated in subsequent options.
Contribution to demos
For merchandise/options which are absolutely Again-end with no front-end, it is vitally onerous to ‘demo’ the completion of the function. It’s customary observe, then, to make use of POSTMAN to offer a dwell 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 a lot better, and even contribute to the demos. As soon as, as an illustration, I observed {that a} explicit parameter was incorrect. There have been some tough use instances, and developer presenting, together with tech lead and others, have been a bit caught. Since I outlined the function and knew it effectively, and since I knew learn how to use POSTMAN, I used to be capable of level out what parameter wanted to be modified with a purpose to get hold of the specified consequence within the demo, and display 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 firms. Writing helps me mirror & repeatedly be taught. Join with me on Twitter.
