Deep dive · L2

Open APIs, Middleware & Developer Experience

OpenAPI-first contracts, versioned public interfaces, SDKs and shared event streams over Kafka and Pub/Sub.

The role

As DX Product Manager for the developer platform, I owned the API contracts, developer portal, sandbox and onboarding journey that partners used to integrate. I treat developers as customers: success is measured in adoption, Developer NPS and time to go-live. I'm open to Head of Product, DX Product Manager and Platform Product Manager roles in Dubai, London or remote.

The problem

Post-M&A fragmentation: 10+ markets ran inconsistent APIs, and every partner integration was bespoke.

The architecture

  • Central middleware integration hub with Salesforce / HubSpot connectors
  • OpenAPI / Swagger specifications
  • HMAC-signed webhooks with automated retries
  • Versioning and breaking-change policy
Partner→Sandbox→Contract→Go-live→Webhooks

Developer experience

  • Self-serve onboarding funnel
  • Sandbox environment
  • SDKs in multiple languages
  • Developer portal

The results (company outcomes)

3x

API adoption

+40

Developer NPS

6 → 2 wks

Partner go-live

60%

Onboarding automated

4x

Merchant growth

Team & reporting

10+ direct reports, 25+ cross-functional team.

Lesson

“Developer experience is a distribution strategy. Every hour removed from integration compounds across the ecosystem.”
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