By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres profiles Gary Clift, a Senior Director of Product for a travel-industry API, who used continuous discovery habits to address why customers were resisting migration to a new version of his company's API. The new API moved from SOAP to JSON, exposed inconsistent airline booking rules, shipped with outdated documentation, and returned unmanaged error codes. Gary's story-based interview snapshots helped leadership see the customer pain, and he later reduced errors and added missing features after direct customer engagement. The piece matters because it shows discovery applies to B2B and developer-facing products, not only consumer apps.
01Key takeaways
- Treat API migrations as re-platforming: decide deliberately what to keep from the old version and what to drop, grounded in customer discovery.
- Story-based interview snapshots can make developer pain concrete and persuade leaders more effectively than repeated general appeals.
- Standardize and govern error messages, since unmanaged codes create costly support burdens and erode developer trust.
- Recruit developer interviewees through DevRel channels such as newsletters, talks, and conferences, or ask customer teams to log friction.
- Run assumption tests to counter confirmation bias, aiming to find the best solution to an opportunity rather than your own preferred one.
- Share interview findings widely and pair vivid customer quotes with quantitative data, since interviews often reflect frustration.
02Key sections
- Introducing the API migration problem
- Gary's job was to move travel agency customers from older API generations to the new version, which the company had repeatedly failed to decommission. The article sketches the airline distribution context that shapes the API's complexity.
- Story one: a major customer's migration struggles
- A large agency found the new JSON-based API hard to adopt because of airline-specific workflow variations and outdated documentation. Gary turned his conversation with the customer's VP of Technology into an interview snapshot that gave leaders concrete evidence.
- Story two: error messages threatening churn
- Unmanaged, inconsistent error codes forced developers to file support tickets, and a key customer threatened to leave. The team built a common error handler library, reducing 1,300 errors to about 1,000 and adding governance.
- Story three: missing features and customer trust
- A new customer was upset that the new API dropped passenger type codes and delayed a promised arrival-time search feature. Direct work with the customer's technical leader, clear deadlines, and monthly progress reports restored the relationship.
- Key learnings
- Gary distills the lessons: reduce uncertainty, use the opportunity solution tree, find developers creatively, test assumptions, and share findings with both peers and leadership.
03From the post
“Continuous discovery is for everyone. You don’t have to be building a consumer-facing app or website to enjoy the benefits of this way of working. But we understand there’s reluctance about adopting discovery outside of traditional business to consumer (B2C) digital products. Whether it’s hard to”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.