Blog
Blog
LinkedIn essays from Emmanuel Paraskakis on API product management, API design, MCP, and agent-ready products.
Off Spec № 03: API Product Management, AI Agents, and Why Agents Won't Read Your Docs
Shane O'Connor's questions, my answers: twenty years of API product lessons, the DX assessment that found an infinite signup path, and why agents won't read your docs.
Read it → Jul 2026New MCP Spec: Seven + 3 Things You Need to Know
The 2026-07-28 release is the largest revision of MCP since launch. What breaks, what doesn't, and the seven changes plus three extensions that matter if you build MCP servers.
Read it → Apr 2026APIs' big moment: give agents what they want
Over two months, the biggest names in tech started making the same argument, independently: APIs are no longer plumbing. They are strategy.
Read it → Mar 2026Should you build MCP servers from your APIs?
"Don't build MCP servers from your APIs." I keep hearing this. I disagree — generate the first one from what you have, eval it against real prompts, iterate.
Read it → Mar 2026How I built a Claude Code Skill that designs APIs
I built a Claude Code Skill that designs APIs for me. You review the design decisions; it writes the OpenAPI. (Not because I'm lazy. OK, maybe a little.)
Read it → Mar 2026Is API design a PM skill now?
An Amazon product leader said the quiet part out loud: API design isn't a developer skill anymore, it's a PM skill. I've been saying it for 15 years.
Read it → Feb 2026Is every company an API company now?
Sam Altman's API-company line and why product managers should take APIs seriously.
Read it → Feb 2026What do the best API pricing pages get right?
Stripe's pricing is one line. OpenAI's fills an entire page. Both are doing it right — the five API pricing pages I keep coming back to, and why they work.
Read it → Dec 2025Is product management dead?
Some people would like you to believe PM is dead and API products don't matter. My take: it's more relevant than ever — just look at who Anthropic is hiring.
Read it → Nov 2025Why publish an MCP server now?
If your product has a public API, publish an MCP server before someone else ships one that appears to be yours — and ends up in control of your traffic.
Read it → Nov 2025Is the API PM job market tough right now?
It feels like a tough market, but there are 45k API-related openings in the US alone — and 10% are for PMs. Where the demand is and how to reach it.
Read it → Oct 2025What's the hardest part of making APIs agent-ready?
The hardest part of getting your APIs agent-ready isn't MCP. It's cleanup: inaccurate docs, missing validation, inconsistent naming.
Read it → Oct 2025How does Postman's co-founder build with AI?
Abhijit Kane gave me a peek into how Postman builds with AI: internal agents, Flows for non-developers, and five takeaways from the live lesson.
Read it → Oct 2025Are enterprise execs behind on AI?
A public company CFO showed me his phone lock screen: nothing but AI models. LLMs on speed-dial — and a trick worth stealing.
Read it → Sep 2025Where did the first modern REST API come from?
In November 2000, eBay released the first modern REST API. The rest (pun intended) is history — the milestones from the Programmable Web to MCP.
Read it → Sep 2025What's new in OpenAPI 3.2?
OpenAPI 3.2 is finally out: $self base URLs, the QUERY method, richer examples, and sequential media types for streaming. Why each one matters.
Read it → Sep 2025What happens when a great product has no API?
One of my favorite web products has no API — and it's costing them retention, partnerships, a shorter backlog, and cheaper support.
Read it → Sep 2025What do successful API organizations have in common?
The organizations with great APIs have something else in common: they're OpenAPI Initiative members. That's not a coincidence.
Read it → Sep 2025How do you make your API product usable by agents?
Agents are coming for your API product. The checklist for your roadmap: complete API coverage, a usable search endpoint, and ten more items.
Read it → May 2025Which API tools support OpenAPI best?
OpenAPI support is everywhere now — linters, docs, editors, gateways. The one gap left is testing, and LLMs are about to close it.
Read it → May 2025Is OpenAPI still the center of your API lifecycle?
Confession: I wasn't always an OpenAPI fan. But it's the glue that makes API products easier, faster, and higher quality — especially now that LLMs can generate it.
Read it → Apr 2025Why does API adoption struggle?
"We have everything in place, but adoption is a struggle." Without an instrumented developer funnel, you're placing random bets on the roadmap.
Read it → Mar 2025What API metrics should product managers track?
Engineering's Datadog dashboards won't help you make product decisions. The engagement, DX, and business metrics API PMs should track instead.
Read it → Mar 2025Will AI agents dominate API consumption?
AI agents will soon dominate API consumption. Twelve things API providers should be doing to get ready — from MCP to agents.json.
Read it → Feb 2025What does it take to become an API expert?
15 years — the time it took me to become an API expert. 2 weeks — the time it takes to learn the 80% that makes a great API product manager.
Read it → Feb 2025Most people build IPAs, not APIs — what's the difference?
Most people build IPAs, not APIs: they start with the interface instead of the application and the programmer. The acronym is the sequence.
Read it → Feb 2025Why are API product managers in high demand?
APIs are 57% of internet traffic, but API and platform PMs are only 5% of product managers — and they're paid 19% more. The opportunity, and how to break in.
Read it → Jan 202515 lessons from 15 years in APIs
Treat APIs as products. Design-first, not code-first. The dev/architect/PM lines are blurring. Fifteen lessons from fifteen years in APIs.
Read it → Jan 2025How do you transition into API product management?
The five challenges that make API product management different — starting with the fact that your users are developers, and fluency beats empathy.
Read it → Dec 2024Platform PM vs API PM: two hats, one job?
As a platform or API PM you're twice the product manager: once for your customers' use cases, and once more for your customers' customers'.
Read it → Nov 2024Which API strategy combination should you use?
API-first, design-first, code-first, API-product: which combination wins depends on your business model. What works, from thousands of API team interviews.
Read it → Sep 2024How do you interview API product managers?
Good API product managers are hard to find. As a VP of Product I've interviewed hundreds — these are the questions I ask, and why technical background matters.
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