Talk: How to design OpenAPIs in Workshops: The API Product Canvas
OpenAPI is a great specification language for RESTful APIs, being machine-readable and well-suited for both developers and business analysts. However, when designing APIs in collaboration with IT and business, the YAML or JSON-based standard can be overwhelming for non-technical people.
To better communicate API specifications, we developed the API Product Canvas, a tool that helps communicate API specifications with ease. This session presented our learnings from designing APIs with IT and non-IT people and how to get to a result in a collaborative way to make well-architectured, business-oriented APIs that are understood by developers and work in production.
Covered topics:
- The challenges of traditional API design approaches with non-technical stakeholders
- How the API Product Canvas framework bridges the communication gap
- Practical techniques for collaborative OpenAPI design workshops
- Real-world examples from working with both IT and business teams
- Methods for creating business-oriented APIs that work in production
Abstract
OpenAPI is a great specification language for RESTful APIs, being machine-readable and well-suited for both developers and business analysts. However, when designing APIs in collaboration with IT and business, the YAML or JSON-based standard can be overwhelming for non-technical people. To better communicate API specifications, we developed the API Product Canvas, a tool that helps communicate API specifications with ease. We will present our learnings from designing APIs with IT and non-IT people and how to get to a result in a collaborative way to make well-architected, business-oriented APIs that are understood by developers and work in production.
The audience will be equipped with a new tool: the API Product Canvas, for communicating APIs.
Teaser Video
This talk was held together with Annegret Junker at Apidays Munich 2025 on July 2-3, 2025 in München.
Links
Event & Material:
- Conference - Apidays Munich 2025
- Slides - Presentation slides
- API Product Canvas - Template for Miro
Related Content:
- Book: Crafting Great APIs with Domain-Driven Design - Comprehensive guide covering collaborative API design methodologies
- Domain-driven API Design Talk - Conference presentation on DDD principles for API design
- How to design AsyncAPIs in Workshops: The API Product Canvas - Companion talk for asynchronous API design
