Meet Emily. She’s an API product manager at ACME, Inc., an ecommerce company that runs on dozens of APIs. One morning, her team lead asks a simple question: “Who’s our top API consumer, and which of your APIs are causing the most issues right now?”

For Emily, that’s not a simple question at all. She doesn’t have direct access to these insights. Instead, she has to reach out to the engineering team. That means interrupting their work, waiting for someone to pull logs or write a query, and then trying to make sense of the output once it finally comes back. By the time she has the answers, the moment has usually passed.

This cycle repeats itself whenever Emily needs to understand adoption, measure performance, or track the health of the APIs she owns. She knows the information exists, but it’s locked behind technical tools she can't easily access. What she wishes for is straightforward: a way to answer these questions herself without burdening the engineering team or waiting for some ad hoc reports.

In this post, we'll learn about the role of API product managers like Emily, who they are, and what their responsibilities include. We'll also walk through the challenges they face when it comes to accessing API analytics, the key KPIs they need to track, and finally, how Kong Konnect's Advanced Analytics can make their job easier.

## What are API product managers?

API product managers look after APIs as products in their own right. Their job is not about building features for an app or website. Instead, they focus on the building blocks that developers use to create those features. Below is what their role entails.

• - They think about developers as customers. Success depends on how easily developers can discover, adopt, and rely on their APIs.
• - They stay accountable after launch. Shipping an API is only the beginning. They must ensure their APIs remain reliable, scalable, and easy to use.
• - They oversee the entire API lifecycle. From new versions to deprecations, they make sure changes don't break existing consumers.
• - They monitor adoption and performance. They track usage, errors, and latency to understand how their APIs are being used and where problems hurt the experience.
• - They connect APIs to business value. They show how growth or issues in their APIs impact revenue, customer satisfaction, or partner success.

In short, API product managers make sure the APIs they own are not just shipped, but used, trusted, and successful. And to do that well, they need visibility into usage, health, and adoption.

*Want to learn more about API product management strategy? Check out the *[*API Product Managers Guide*](https://konghq.com/resources/e-book/api-product-management-guide)*API Product Managers Guide** for a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities of managing APIs throughout their lifecycle.*

## When the data API product managers need is out of reach

Owning an API doesn't end at launch. API product managers need ongoing visibility into how their APIs are used, how they perform, and where developers run into problems. Without that visibility, they can't make informed decisions about adoption, reliability, or growth.

Below are some of the reasons why many API product managers still struggle to access data.

• - Data locked in technical tools. Most analytics live in logs, monitoring systems, or dashboards built for engineers. These are powerful, but hard for a product manager to use without help.
• - Manual requests. Even simple questions like “who is using this API?” or “which endpoints are failing the most?” often require engineering time to pull data, slowing down both sides.
• - Blind spots in adoption. Traffic and error rates are visible, but consumer-level insights are often missing or fragmented. Information about “who” is using an API may live in other systems, making it hard to connect usage data with actual adoption trends.

The result is frustration on both sides. API Product managers can't act quickly, and engineers get stuck responding to ad hoc requests instead of focusing on building and improving APIs.

So what data really matters? If API product managers had direct access to the right insights, they could make faster, better decisions without waiting on others. That starts with a clear set of metrics showing the adoption, performance, and reliability of the APIs they own.

## The KPIs that matter most to API product managers

Once API product managers have easier access to analytics, the next question is what to actually measure. Not every metric adds value. The goal is to focus on the signals that reveal adoption, performance, reliability, and business impact.

Here are the most important KPIs to track.

**Usage metrics**

• - Total API calls over time: Shows traffic trends and whether overall adoption is growing.
• - API calls by endpoint: Highlights which parts of the API are most used.
• - Active consumers over time: Tracks growth in developers actively using the API.

**Performance and health metrics**

• - Average response time by endpoint: Identifies slow APIs before they cause frustration.
• - Error rates (4xx, 5xx): Surfaces client or server issues that affect reliability.
• - Top endpoints by error rate: Pinpoints the most problematic parts of an API.
• - Uptime and availability: A baseline metric for trust and meeting SLAs.

**Security metrics**

• - Failed authentication attempts: Indicates early signal for potential abuse or misconfiguration.
• - Rate limit hits: Helps spot risky traffic patterns or abusive behavior.

**Business and engagement metrics**

• - New API keys issued: Tracks the growth of your developer base.
• - Top consumers by volume: Reveals your biggest users and potential partners.

**Quality of service metrics**

• - Latency percentiles (P50, P95, P99): Provides a clearer picture than averages alone.
• - Time to first API call after registration: Measures friction in onboarding new developers.

Together, these KPIs give API product managers a complete picture of how their APIs are used, how they perform, and how they contribute to business goals. 

But knowing which metrics matter is only half the battle. The real challenge is making these insights easy to access and use in daily decision-making. This is where Konnect's Advanced Analytics comes in handy.

## Democratizing API insights with Kong Konnect's Advanced Analytics

Let’s bring Emily back. She logs into her Konnect account and navigates to Analytics → Dashboards. From here, she creates a new dashboard using a pre-existing template. These templates capture best practices and give her a quick starting point.

Now, in just a few clicks, Emily has one place where she can see traffic trends, top consumers, error hotspots, latency, and overall API health. No tickets. No waiting. Just the insights she needs to do her job.

Out of the box, the “Shared services dashboard” template already includes a rich set of charts and metrics.

• - Total service requests (last day / over time): It's the baseline usage trend.
• - Number of errors (4xx, 5xx): It's a quick health check.
• - Average response time: It shows performance at a glance.
• - Top consumers: It answers “who is using my APIs.”
• - Top services or routes: It shows where traffic is concentrated.
• - Errors over time or Top 5xx sources: It helps spot problem areas.

With this starting point, Emily can add or remove charts, customize the layout, and filter the data to focus on what matters most.

## Closing the loop

At the beginning, Emily’s simple questions — like "Who is using my APIs?" and "Which ones are causing the most issues?" — felt impossible to answer without waiting on engineering. With Konnect's Advanced Analytics, those answers are now at her fingertips.

She no longer has to chase logs or request custom reports. Instead, she can open her dashboard, see adoption, performance, and reliability in one place, and make decisions with confidence. The engineering team stays focused on building, while Emily gains the independence she needs to guide her APIs toward growth.

For API product managers everywhere, that independence is the difference between reacting to problems and leading with insight.

## Get started with Advanced Analytics

Exploring Advanced Analytics and creating your first custom dashboard in Konnect is easy. If you're already a Konnect customer, custom dashboards are available in your organization today. Just [log in](https://cloud.konghq.com/login)log in, go to Analytics → Dashboards, and either start with a template or create one from scratch.

If you're new to Kong, you can [sign up for Kong Konnect](https://konghq.com/products/kong-konnect/register)sign up for Kong Konnect for free and try it out yourself.