There are many successful product managers who have been able to create exceptional products without software development experience or formal technical education. But understanding the basics of technology and being able to communicate effectively with the engineering team is one of the key skills that’ll definitely make a product manager’s work easier.

This article is a part of the series of “cheat sheets” that will help non-tech product managers develop a working intuition towards essential technology concepts.

And there couldn’t have been a better topic to start the series than APIs. I can bet that you can come up with a drinking game based on the number of times APIs would be mentioned on the engineering floor of any tech company. They have become a critical part of business as well as architectural decisions.

The cheat sheet mainly covers the business scenarios around APIs as well the key technical terms explained using a restaurant as an analogy. It deliberately doesn’t deep dive into technology concepts. Once you go through the sheet, and feel inclined to learn more about the technical aspects, I have listed 5 excellent resources that should help you build an understanding without bombarding you with unnecessary details.