I am spending some time taking another look at my "client research", which started out as just about Postman and PAW, but now contains ten separate services I'm and bundling into this area of research. As with all my research areas, these project repos shift, evolve, split and marge with time, as the API space changes, and my awareness of it grows.
I completely understand the term "client" doesn't provide an adequate label for this bucket of research, but for now, it will have to do. As I add a couple of new services to the bucket, and made my way through some of the existing ones I had, I wanted to step back and look at what they were offering, but more importantly the message that went around quantify what tehse companies were offering.
When it comes to what I call "lines along the API lifecycle", I saw these areas represented.
This is where the API client line potentially intersects with all of these other API life-cycle lines. However, When you start to analyze the features or building blocks offered by these service providers, you begin to see each stop along along the API client line, which becomes pretty critical to other areas of the API lifecycle.
I know that what I am saying might not be completely clear, it isn't for me either. That is why I tell stories, to try and find the patterns, and learn how to articulate all the moving parts. I'm still trying to figure out what to call my research, alongside all of these API service providers working to define just exactly what it is they are selling as well.
The more time I spend with my API client research, the more all of this comes into focus. The problem is that these companies are rapidly adding in new features, in demand to what their customers are needing, which keeps me on my toes, as well as increases overlap with other lines that I track on along the API life-cycle.
I just wanted to take a moment, update my research, and take another look at the companies, and tooling at play.
