UiPath simplifies developer onboarding and boosts customer feedback on Postman

Generally speaking, during any developer onboarding only a few use cases really matter. However, it can be overwhelming to read through full-blown documentation on a massive API like UiPath's Orchestrator API and then try to pick out those use cases that really matter. UiPath's Third-Party Integrations team wanted to abstract out a set of typical integration use cases so that their customers could stay focused and productive with the API. The team needed a solution that could help them present those select use cases to customers in a simple way, as well as easily build and maintain the associated documentation.

During the development of UiPath's Automation Hub API, the product team needed an easy way to let users get a glimpse of what the API could do and then provide feedback. Along the way, the team also needed to create and update documentation, as well as run regression test suites after every major build of the API. Ideally, the right solution would consolidate all of the use cases and make it easier to both gather feedback and maintain rapid progress.

Both teams turned to Postman to help them accomplish their goals, and several platform features were particularly useful.

Starting with Postman Collections, each team built a collection that included requests associated with key use cases, queries, and parameters for their respective API. With this approach, customers and internal users can simply download the collection and start exploring right away without having to compose requests themselves. Collections are easily shareable on the UiPath website using the Run in Postman button, in email, or via the Postman API Network.

Customers jumpstart their API experience by downloading our Postman Collections and exploring various requests. It's been a key enabler of our customer onboarding and feedback processes.

Soren Visan, Senior Product Manager, UiPath

Once their collection was complete, the teams used Postman's API documentation tool to automatically generate machine-readable documentation for their API. Updates made to the collection automatically trigger updates to the docs, so everything always stays in sync. The Automation Hub team began using this tool early in development to build out a full set of docs right from the beginning. The Third-Party Integrations team could pick and choose the Orchestrator API use cases they wanted to include, add them to their collection, and generate shorter, more focused docs.

Postman enables us to really keep things simple for our customers. We can carve out relevant pieces of the API and easily create documentation that focuses only on specific functionality.

Robert Wagner, Product Manager, UiPath

Finally, both teams use Postman's API monitoring to help them stay on top of any changes to the API. During development, the monitoring feature helped identify performance issues when testing new builds of the Automation Hub API. The Third-Party Integrations team uses monitors to track changes to the Orchestrator API, so they can update their collection accordingly and identify any issues that might arise for customers.

We use Postman's API monitoring to run regression tests on a daily basis. This gives us confidence that nothing has changed for our integrators.

Robert Wagner, Product Manager, UiPath

Adopting Postman has made a significant impact on the API programs and workflows for both UiPath teams.

Fewer support calls during onboarding

For the Third-Party Integrations team, Postman has significantly reduced time spent on customer support. They no longer have to jump on an hour-long call to walk a customer through the API. Their Postman Collection gives customers a convenient, self-service way to learn what they need to know. This approach has been well received, and everyone benefits from a boost in productivity.

Tighter feedback loop between API producers and API consumers

During the first product feedback session, customers liked using the Automation Hub API collection; in fact, they wanted to see more. So, the product team built out the collection with more requests and examples. Postman's ease of use made it simple for customers to test specific use cases and provide quick feedback. As a result, the team could accelerate their development cycles and capture higher quality customer input along the way. Customers even recommended other use cases and parameters to add to the collection, making it even more useful over time.

Easier, more informative documentation

Some solutions in the market today build documentation into the code base, which requires a code release just to update the docs. With Postman, that time is cut in half and updates are live in real time. In addition, code-based solutions often make it difficult to document the sequence of steps in a process; Postman, by contrast, makes it easy to model sequences in a collection, so that users can run requests with the right values in the right order. Getting the sequence right is especially crucial to getting value out of UiPath's Orchestrator API. For both teams, API documentation is always up to date, informative, and easily accessible, no matter what customers are building with UiPath APIs.

Going forward, both teams plan to expand their use of Postman. The Third-Party Integrations team is looking at building new onboarding experiences, and the Automation Hub team wants to further simplify processes across various types of documentation.