# Product advisory for API and developer-platform teams

> Two weeks on one open product decision, ending in a written recommendation with
> the trade-off named. Two weeks, $2,500, fixed.

Offered by Abdul Hannan Shaikh, Senior Technical Product Manager at APIMatic since
2021. Contact: hello@ahshaikh.com. Booking: https://calendly.com/ahspm/30min

## What it is

Two weeks on the decision that has been open longest. Most stuck decisions are not
stuck for want of an opinion; they are stuck because the cost of being wrong is
real and nobody has written the trade-off down.

The engagement produces:

- Which call on the roadmap has been open longest, treated as the question.
- A read of the specs, the engineers, and how an agent reads the API surface.
- The trade-off named in writing, with the reasoning attached.

For API products and developer platforms. Not for writing code, and not for running
a growth team.

## The record, as evidence

- 2021, Moved. Left product ownership for product management, four months after the lending MVP shipped with two of Pakistan's largest banks.
- 2024, Paid off. Held the roadmap for a quarter to instrument the product, then re-prioritised against what the funnel actually showed.
- 2025, Held. Shipped llms.txt generation to every customer deployment of the developer portal, for a spec no major AI lab had agreed to read.
- 2026, Live. Built A[P]Iaudit outside work and published it free and open source, with no signup and the rubric public.

Two of those did not work and say so. Full rows, with what actually happened in
each: https://ahshaikh.com/#record

## Questions

### What does a product advisor actually do in two weeks?

Reads what you have, talks to the people who know, and writes down the call with
the trade-off named. Specs, the funnel if there's one, and the engineers, because
the constraint is usually in the build and not in the roadmap.

### How is this different from hiring a consultancy?

A consultancy sells a team and a process, and the engagement grows. This is one
person, one decision, two weeks, and a fixed fee agreed before anything starts.

### Who is it for, and who is it not for?

For API products, developer platforms, and teams wiring an agent into something
that already has customers. Not for code, and not for running a growth team.

### What if the recommendation is one we disagree with?

Then you've got the reasoning in writing and can argue with it, which is more than most
engagements leave behind.

### What does it cost?

Two weeks, $2,500, fixed. Scope is agreed before anything starts. A 30-minute call
costs nothing and you'll leave it with a straight read either way.

## Related

- API agent readiness read, one week, $1,200 fixed:
  https://ahshaikh.com/api-agent-readiness/
- Essays: https://soch.ahshaikh.com