AMA: Salesforce Senior Director of Product, Agentforce AI Platform, Deepak Mukunthu on Developer Product Management

I see my role as translating between three worlds: developers (users), engineering (builders), and the business.For developer products, that translation is more technical...

There’s overlap, but they’re not identical.Technical PM → Focuses on building technically complex systems (may be internal or external)Developer PM → Focuses on developer...

Extremely closely, arguably closer than in most PM roles.Internally: daily collaboration with engineers on design and trade-offsExternally: constant feedback loops with a...

Self-serve is everything. If developers can’t succeed without talking to you, you’ve failed.Key things that matter:Time to first success < 5 minutesClear, copy-pasteab...

A huge one, especially for developer products.Engineers bring:Reality on feasibility and complexityStrong opinions on design and usability (often valid)Insight into long-...

A few big ones:DX as a competitive advantageGreat APIs aren’t enough, experience wins.Shift toward platforms, not just productsExtensibility and ecosystems matter more th...

Should be technical enough to:Understand API design, trade-offs, and constraintsRead code and reason about systemsHave meaningful conversations with engineersBut you don’...

You show impact, not theory. Engineers will value you if you do that.For example:Better onboarding → higher activation → real revenue impactCleaner API design → fewer sup...

This is a classic trap.Engineers are valuable, but they’re not always representative.Approach:Validate with broader user data (not just internal opinions)Distinguish betw...

Following are critical stakeholders that you need to focus on to be effective and successful:External developers (most important)Engineering teamsDeveloper relations / ad...