developers.quaderno.io & Quaderno Connect: docs as a product
The problem. Quaderno's API products needed self-service integration: with a ~15 people company, every integrator question that reached support was expensive, and outdated docs are worse than no docs. The stakes grew with Quaderno Connect (https://developers.quaderno.io/guides/connect/), the white-label API for platforms and marketplaces: complex integrations, a domain full of edge cases (taxes), and big prospects comparing us against alternatives like Stripe Tax.
What I did. I built (and wrote!) the whole developer site (https://developers.quaderno.io) and evolved the API, treating both as products: OpenAPI reference, integration guides per user profile. Particularly proud of making the OpenAPI reference auto-generate from tests in the Rails codebase (rswag), which gave ownership to the whole team: keeping docs up to date became the path of least resistance. For Connect I owned the product side: reference and guides, hands-on support to integrators through implementation (including the complex tax-domain explanations), evolving and extending the API from their needs directly in the codebase, and working with Marketing on the landings and with Sales on positioning.
The outcome. Reduced integrator questions and became a huge selling point over competitors: large international marketplaces evaluating alternatives like Stripe Tax chose Quaderno, and they repeatedly credited the documentation and the implementation support. I gave a talk about this approach at Software Crafters Barcelona 2025, "Documenting APIs" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHIsuIlSiio), and I'm bringing an updated version to Write The Docs Berlin in September 2026.