Emmanuel Paraskakis

Cohort 3

Cohort 1 - Build AI-Ready APIs: A Hands-On Workshop for Engineers and PMs

Cohort 1

API Fundamentals for Product Managers, Cohort 2

Cohort 2

Cohort 4

Cohort 5, API Fundamentals for Product Managers

Cohort 5

API Fundamentals for Product Managers, Cohort 1

API Product Mastery for Experienced PMs, Cohort 1

Prolific 1

API Fundamentals for Product Managers, Cohort 3

Prolific 2

API Product Mastery for Experienced PMs, Cohort 2

API Product Mastery for Experienced PMs Cohort 5

Get this 20-point checklist to assess your organization's API Governance readiness.Share the Google Sheet with your team, and once complete, use it as an action list to improve!

API Lifecycle & Governance Checklist

Learn about API&nbsp;standards&nbsp;and&nbsp;conventions, and why it's a good idea to adhere to them. Ensure API users are not surprised&nbsp;and make&nbsp;API products usable&nbsp;and compatible with tooling. Contents:<ol><li>Web API Styles and when to use them</li><li>How APls Work</li><li>Naming, Vocabulary, and Data Types/Structures</li><li>Conventions and Best Practices</li><li>API Design Patterns</li><li>Authentication Types and Standards</li></ol>

API Design Fundamentals

❓Most people think API Product Management is a technical discipline. ❗️ But in reality, it's mainly about the business aspects of APIs. ✅ This information sheet clearly explains API business terms, audiences, personas, growth drivers, and high-level use cases to help you ship APIs as Products.

The Business of APIs

🚨 Many API Providers focus on the API and Documentation and forget that API adoption is all about the user journey. 🧑‍💻 But the API Developer's user journey has to be meticulously designed and measured. ✅ Here’s what you should know about the 4 stages of DX onboarding, including goals, metrics and what tools to introduce at each stage.

The Four Stages of the API Developer Experience (DX) Funnel

🧑‍💻 Most API Product Managers go with the metrics collected by engineering. ❌ But your Datadog dashboards alone won’t help you make informed product decisions. ✅ Here’s what you should be tracking (12+4 Metrics) instead and why.

API Metrics for Product Managers

Visualize and plot your API PM Career progress on this canvas from my How to break into API Product Management lesson.

API Product Manager Career Canvas

Become an expert API Product Manager and learn how to scale and manage an API portfolio.

API PM Executive | 15+ Years, VP-Level Experience

API Product Mastery for Experienced PMs

Senior Technical Product Manager - Track API at FedEx

Enterprise Products API Lead

API Product Manager

Digital Product Manager.

Sr Director

Become an API Product Manager. Go from generalist to specialist and ship winning API products.

API Fundamentals for Product Managers

Senior Product Manager 

Product Manager

Learning Engineer

This course will help you bridge the gap between your current expertise and the technical knowledge needed to build products that power experiences for millions of users. Here’s why an API PM role might be your next big career move:• You’ll develop deep technical skills without needing to be a full-time coder.• You can position yourself as a niche specialist, potentially earning a premium salary.• You’ll have greater autonomy once you understand the ins and outs of APIs.• You’ll build and launch products that are core to modern digital ecosystems. API Fundamentals for Product Managers focuses on the essentials, getting you up to speed quickly so you can confidently talk to developers, gather requirements, and launch your first API product. Here’s a preview of the topics we’ll cover in this live, cohort-based course:• What makes an API Product successful• Gathering API requirements from customers• Examples of strong API design and usability• Building a great Developer Experience as a PM• Monetizing APIs• Key metrics and KPIs for API Products After 15+ years managing API products, I’ve seen firsthand how to thrive as an API PM—and I want to share what I’ve learned! By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills and perspective to deliver real value and confidently guide the next generation of API-driven products.

Are you a PM looking to accelerate your journey into the world of APIs?

Course syllabus

Two Live Sessions a week, covering an entire module, with breaks, exercises and group discussion.

Thursdays & Fridays

Optional Q&A after each session

Course schedule

Product Managers with no API experience who want to launch and manage winning API Products.

New API Product Managers who are transitioning into the role.

Leaders who want to hire and manage API Product Managers.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

<ul><li>Articulate the importance and business impact of APIs.</li><li>Define relevant stakeholders and use cases.</li><li>Understand the API Product Manager’s pivotal role.</li><li>Identify key success factors for real-world API products and how they drive business value.</li></ul>

Build a Strong API Foundation

<ul><li>Explain how APIs work, illustrate core design principles that drive usability, and discuss why good API design matters.</li><li>Demonstrate how to invoke and test APIs using client apps, interpret responses, and ensure high-quality and relevant content.</li><li>Practice with real-world APIs.</li></ul>

Gain Hands-On API Skills

<ul><li>Develop a clear business strategy for API products.&nbsp;</li><li>Work through prototyping, customer discovery, and validation.</li><li>Learn how to define the unique value of your APIs.</li><li>Explore strategies for monetizing APIs.</li></ul>

Master the Business of APIs

<ul><li>Build a compelling DX by understanding how developers evaluate, learn, and adopt APIs</li><li>Write clear technical requirements and measure API success through key metrics.</li><li>Analyze real-world Developer Portals, dissect their design, and evaluate their DX to uncover best practices.</li></ul>

Deliver Exceptional Developer Experiences

<ul><li>Group discussions where you can learn from others.</li><li>Four projects, working hands-on to evaluate real-world products.</li><li>Optional Q&amp;A after the main sessions with the instructor - we'll stay in the session as long as needed.</li></ul>

Network and Collaborate with your peers

If you’ve shipped an API product—or more—and you want to level up your expertise, API Product Mastery for Experienced PMs is for you. You’ll learn how to design and deliver API products that not only meet technical standards but also drive measurable business impact. We’ll go beyond the basics, digging into real strategies for building APIs that empower both developers and business stakeholders, all while solidifying your role as an API thought leader within your organization. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to speak confidently about APIs in product parlance, build robust solutions your engineering teams will appreciate, and design Developer Experiences that rival the best in the industry. My core goal is to help you sharpen your capabilities so you can set bold KPIs, exceed them, and demonstrate the ROI of your API initiatives. You’ll walk away with a practical toolkit for everything from rapid prototyping to scaling API products for high-volume use. Whether you’re perfecting an existing product, tackling a new launch, or even guiding a team of product managers, you’ll have the structure and know-how to succeed: Understand APIs at a deeper level—enough to earn the respect of peers, leadership, and technical teams• Drive business impact by setting stronger goals and hitting KPIs for your API products• Build a clear path to product growth through monetization, internal advocacy, and advanced Go To Market strategies• Deliver a stellar Developer Experience with better documentation, security, and onboarding flows• Become the API champion who can confidently guide decision-making and position APIs as a strategic advantage within your organization• Explore the future of APIs as they evolve with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent API consumption, including design and building of APIs with the help of LLMs. After 15+ years managing API products, I’ve seen firsthand how to thrive as an API PM—and I want to share what I’ve learned! When you complete this course, you’ll have the skills and perspective to deliver real value and confidently guide and scale the next generation of API portfolios. UPDATE: With this course we'll be including a full year's subscription for Lenny's Newsletter, worth $200!With it you get full access to an impressive set of AI tools such as Replit, Lovable, Bolt, n8n, Linear, Superhuman, Granola, Perplexity and more - yes that's worth more than the price of the course! Check more details about the bundle here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/productpass ﻿Please note that this course is not endorsed by Lenny or the community and that I'm including this bundle at my cost so that students have the tools to complete course exercises and access to the wonderful Lenny's community too!

Accelerate Your Career and Become the Go-To API Expert in Your Organization

Five live sessions covering each module, with projects and group discussion.

Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays

Due the Tuesday after course completion.

Build and Demo an API Prototype Project

The session is on the Tuesday after course completion.

AMA & Demo - 1 session

Product Managers with some API PM Experience who want to take on more responsibility and become experts at shipping public and internal API

Product Managers who have shipped API Products but want to gain a deeper understanding and scale to an API Portfolio

Product Leaders who want to hire and manage a team of API Product Managers.

<ul><li>Adopt API-first and secure executive buy-in to build an API portfolio.</li><li>Make API governance, security and compliance a part of your roadmap.</li><li>Explore how MCP &amp; Agents will drive the next wave of API consumption.</li><li>Identify how API businesses succeed by examining real-world business m</li></ul>

Define a Winning API Strategy for the Future

<ul><li>Evaluate modern API architectures (REST, GraphQL, Async, gRPC) to choose the right approach for your use case.</li><li>Craft consistent API designs using standards, OpenAPI, and style guides.</li><li>Plan for API evolution by creating a deprecation policy and implementing effective versioning.</li></ul>

Understand How Great APIs Are Made: The API Lifecycle

<ul><li>Develop a frictionless Developer Experience, from clear documentation to Dev Portals with PLG.</li><li>Optimize usage and revenue by analyzing API metrics, refining pricing models and tracking churn.</li><li>Implement clear pricing strategies—like tiered or usage-based pricing—supported by data.</li></ul>

Drive API Adoption with an Effective Go-to-Market Approach

<ul><li>Use AI tools to iterate on your API design for usability, consistency , and standards.</li><li>Gather feedback from users through documentation and mock services.</li><li>Implement your API prototype using AI codegen.</li><li>Deploy your API behind an API Gateway and view Analytics</li></ul>

Design and Build a Working API Using Best Practices

<ul><li>Demo the API Prototype you built to the class.</li><li>Group discussions where you can learn from others.</li><li>AMA session with the instructor - bring the topics you’d like to cover!</li></ul>

Hands-On MCP: From API to Live MCP Server in Minutes

Instantly transform your existing APIs into MCP servers - no coding needed.

Generate an MCP server from your OpenAPI

Quickly validate your MCP integrations with live AI-agent tests on Claude.

Test your MCP tools locally on Claude

Easily publish your MCP server publicly, expanding your API’s reach.

Deploy to an MCP Registry to make it available to the world!

We'll take your questions and talk about where to learn more about MCP and securing your MCP servers.

Plan for Next Steps

The AI Collective is a non-profit, grassroots community exploring the frontier of AI. 
NOTE: We'll use Roam, not Zoom!

Session sponsored by AI Collective

Build AI-Ready APIs with MCP

Identify how Model Context Protocol enhances API integration with AI Agents & LLMs.

Recognize MCP’s Importance for API Providers

Examine the latest developments and applications of MCP in the industry.

Discover the Current State of MCP

Learn to create an MCP server using your existing OpenAPI specifications.

Generate an MCP Server from OpenAPI Specs

Define steps to integrate MCP into your API development plans.

Incorporate MCP into Your API Roadmap

AI Agents are Coming for Your API - Are You Ready?

Zdenek Nemec

Founder & CTO, superface.ai

Recognize common issues AI agents face when connecting with current APIs.

Identify AI Agent Integration Challenges

Learn how Large Language Models interact with APIs using tools such as Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Understand How LLMs consume APIs

Use a checklist to evaluate gaps in your APIs so you can prepare and prioritize what to address.

Assess Your API’s Readiness for AI Agents

Develop actionable steps to make your APIs compatible with AI agents.

Create a Plan to Prepare Your APIs for AI Agents

Develop, Deploy and Secure Your API with AI Codegen

You'll learn how to use AI-generated code to rapidly build your API's first version from validated specifications.

Build Your API with AI Code Generation

You'll see how you can test scenarios efficiently to confirm your API works as expected and meets your customers’ needs.

Test Your API Implementation Effectively

You'll deploy the API behind a cloud API gateway to protect it, while keeping alignment with the original requirements.

Deploy and Secure Your API

You'll understand how to take an API Product from concept to production, expanding your impact as a Product Manager.

Evolve your technical PM skills

Create AI-Powered API Documentation Fast

Ana Robakidze

Founder & CEO @ Theneo

Use Theneo to rapidly generate clear, professional documentation from any OpenAPI spec—yours or a sample provided

Build Your API Docs Quickly

Incorporate advanced tools like AI-powered search, interactive "try-it-out" and automated changelogs.

Enhance Docs with AI Features

Leverage AI to eliminate tedious, repetitive writing, freeing you to focus on clarity and quality.

Automate Writing Tasks

Understand how to smoothly add AI-driven documentation tools into your PM and development cycles.

Integrate into Your Workflow

Build Your Own API Prototype in 20 Minutes with AI

Leverage AI to generate precise API specifications efficiently.

Quickly create accurate OpenAPI specifications using LLMs

Use free validation and rating tools to ensure your API design complies with industry standards and best practices.

Easily verify your API design and quality against standards

Implement a mock API complete with comprehensive documentation for immediate customer interaction.

Deploy and render a fully documented mock API

Leverage AI to Drive Better API Product Decisions

Derric Gilling

CEO of Moesif

Discover how to map and analyze the complete customer journey from signup to paid conversion.

Visualize Your API Developer's Journey

Learn exactly where and why developers abandon your API funnel, enabling targeted improvements to boost adoption.

Spot Conversion Roadblocks

See how AI insights can guide feature prioritization and help you measure the impact of API changes on business metrics.

Make Data-Driven API Decisions

Tailor Moesif dashboards to your  API product needs without requiring technical expertise or engineering support.

Customize Analytics Without Code

How to break into API Product Management

Understand how API PM differs from traditional PM roles—and why it pays off.

What Is API Product Management and Why It’s Worth Pursuing

Discover which industries and companies need API PMs, and learn how to network with them.

Where to Find an API Product Management Job

Learn what hiring managers expect so you can stand out and secure the offer.

How to Prepare for the API Product Manager Interview

Identify gaps in your technical or market knowledge, then build a plan to fill them.

Emmanuel Paraskakis

Emmanuel Paraskakis

Courses

Lightning Lessons

Resources

Reviews