How did Olist go from 8 to 16 integrations in seven months?

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Problem/Goal

In October 2019, I was the product manager of Olist’s mobile app and also the PM of the Partners team. I was dividing my time between these two squads and the Partners team was responsible for the integrations with third-party solutions like ERPs, e-commerce builders, and hubs.

Olist had 8 solutions integrated in 2019, and there weren’t any transparent flow that new companies should take to integrate APIs. Besides that, Olist also didn’t convert enough sellers due to lack of some essential solutions integrated and the technical documentation was outdated.

According to this scenario, I had to create a more structured playbook for new companies to connect Olist’s APIs and organize internal processes to scale new integrations.

Solution

To generate more visibility and share how other companies in the market could use Olist’s APIs as a growth channel, I worked with designers from other teams and worked with an agency to develop a portal.

Landing page linked to Olist’s website to share information about why and how to integrate

I also helped to update the technical documentation, prioritized, and conducted the ceremonies, such as refinements and reviews, to build a test environment (sandbox) for other companies to test their implementations.

The first image is the documentation at ReadMe and the second is an example of one of the initiates to have the sandbox

​I also wrote and updated articles from the top 5 integrations Olist had to better support sellers and the Customer Success team. Both were having many difficulties understanding what needed to be done to integrate, export products, or import orders from the integrations.

Results/metrics

With the previous initiatives, from December 2019 to May 2020, Olist grew the number of new integrations.

Number of new integrations that exported products to Olist

Some of the integrations we supported the integration to Olist’s APIs

More than 800k products were exported from integrations during 2020, and quantity grew along the time.

Quantity of products exported from integrations during 2020

Lessons Learned

• Sometimes you won’t have the necessary professionals in your team, and you will need to use external service providers and ask for help from other squads. As a Product Manager, you must do whatever it takes to achieve the team's objectives.
• Working with agencies, software houses, and other providers can accelerate initial traction. However, you should internalize the work once you get enough evidence of success and if it’s core to your strategy.
• Many companies have grown by transitioning to a platform business model. This means they add value to users by using third-party solutions integrated that complement what they are good at, their core business. Salesforce, Hubspot, and Apple are good examples.