Building at the Edge — How Product Innovation, APIs & Modular Platforms Shape the User Experience | DisrupTV Ep. 84
In DisrupTV Episode 84, hosts Cindy Zhou (guest host) and Vala Afshar speak with:
- E.J. Kenney, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products at SAP
- Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io
- Jon Reed, Co-Founder of Diginomica
They discuss how consumer-facing product innovation is evolving, particularly through modularity, APIs, platformization, composability, and how these trends affect both user experience and business agility. The show looks at how companies can stay ahead by rethinking product architectures, enabling faster updates, and remaining responsive to customers in a digital environment.
Key Takeaways
Modular, API-First Architectures Enable Agility
Neha Sampat of Built.io emphasizes that building with APIs and modular systems allows products to evolve rapidly, integrating with third-party tools or components. This modular approach helps enterprises keep pace with change and meet user expectations.
E.J. Kenney discusses the trade-offs of modularity vs monolithic design, especially in large companies: when done right, modularity can reduce technical debt and speed up feature delivery.
User Experience & Consumer Expectations Drive Innovation
The guests agree that today's users expect seamless, integrated, intuitive product experiences — whether in consumer apps or enterprise tools. A product’s ability to deliver consistent UX across modules and touchpoints is a competitive differentiator.
Platform as Ecosystem: Partnerships, Extensibility, and Integration
Neha Sampat highlights how enabling external developers (via APIs, SDKs, etc.) extends a product’s reach and fosters ecosystems.
Jon Reed and Kenney discuss how platforms that support extensibility (modular plugins or integrations) are more resilient and can adapt to changes or disruptions in market demands and technology.
Scalability, Reliability, and Governance
As products move from prototype or internal use to broader deployment, concerns arise around quality, performance, governance, security, and maintainability. Kenney points out that scaling modular systems demands strong governance and thoughtful architecture.
Balancing Speed & Innovation with Stability
There is a tension between releasing quickly (for competitive advantage, feedback, adaptability) and maintaining reliability, consistency, and maintaining technical debt. The discussion addresses strategies for balancing these, such as feature toggles, phased rollouts, monitoring, and observability.
Final Thoughts
- Companies that want to stay relevant need to adopt architectural practices that support modular, API-first design. This isn’t just a technical choice, but a strategic one.
- Product innovation is no longer just about features, but about how fast and how well you can adapt, integrate, and deliver consistent user experiences across changing environments.
- Governance, reliability, and maintainability must be baked in from early stages — great modularity doesn’t excuse sloppy oversight.
- Ecosystems matter — enabling extensibility, openness, and integrations amplifies value beyond what internal teams alone can deliver.
Related Episodes
- DisrupTV Ep. 86 – Scaling AI, ESG & the Smart Enterprise (Manoj Saxena, Jay Jacobs & Heather Clancy) — how enterprises are integrating responsibility into fast-moving technologies.
- DisrupTV Ep. 85 – Investing in Innovation: Bruce Cleveland, Leslie Berlin & Steve Wilson — lessons from venture capital, historical tech, and how that feeds modern innovation.
- DisrupTV Ep. 87 – People-Centered Internet & Digital Inclusion (Vint Cerf, Dr. David Bray, Mei Lin Fung & Teresa Booher) — focusing on access, trust, governance, and who benefits from the Internet’s growth.
