How to Build Integrations with Platforms Bigger Than You Without Getting Stuck at the Bottom of the Queue

In this episode of Between Product and Partnerships, Biljana Pecelj joins Cristina Flaschen to explain how smaller teams successfully ship integrations with larger platform partners. She makes the case that leveraging usage data and performance metrics is the key to proving your integration's value, giving you the necessary influence to move up a major partner's priority list.

Biljana shares lessons from her experience managing integrations at Hootsuite during major platform shifts, including the rise of Instagram Business APIs and the emergence of new features like Stories that didn’t always come with immediate API support. She also details the process of aligning internal stakeholders to ensure integration features actually ship despite shifting external APIs.

The conversation also covers the operational side of integrations, this includes why observability needs to be built early, how teams detect silent failures before customers do, and how to structure internal alignment when integration work touches engineering, legal, partnerships, and revenue.

Who we sat down with

Biljana Pecelj is a Principal Product Manager at Ledgy with deep experience building integrations inside platform-heavy environments. She has worked extensively on partnership-driven product initiatives where execution speed depends on navigating both technical constraints and external partner relationships.

Biljana brings expertise in:

• Building integrations in environments where APIs and features evolve asynchronously
• Designing for observability and proactive monitoring
• Navigating asymmetric partner relationships
• Aligning roadmap priorities across product, partnerships, legal, and engineering
• Managing tradeoffs between beta opportunities and engineering capacity

Key Topics

Why integration product work is relationship work

Technical execution matters, but alignment with partners determines whether integrations actually ship and scale.

Building in ecosystems you don’t control

APIs change. Features launch without endpoints. Roadmaps shift. Successful teams anticipate uncertainty rather than assume stability.

The importance of observability from day one

Silent failures are common in integrations. Without monitoring, teams often learn about outages from customers instead of systems.

Roadmap tradeoffs when beta opportunities arise

New partner features can require immediate shifts in engineering priorities. Negotiation and resource reallocation become core product skills.

M&A and integration complexity

Brand consolidation rarely means backend integration. Teams often inherit layered systems that remain technically independent long after acquisition.

Episode Highlights

01:55 – How integration product management differs from core product work
04:40 – Navigating power imbalances with large platform partners
07:15 – Using data to strengthen partner conversations
10:30 – Building observability when resources are limited
13:45 – Handling silent integration failures
17:50 – Managing beta features and roadmap shifts
21:30 – Aligning cross-functional teams around integration priorities
24:45 – Why relationships accelerate integration execution
28:10 – Lessons learned from building inside platform ecosystems

Tactical Takeaways

1. Integrations as Strategic Leverage 

In platform-heavy markets, integrations provide strategic leverage by improving sales outcomes and strengthening your market position. This shift in perspective ensures that connectivity is viewed as a driver for customer retention rather than a background technical requirement.

2. Managing Partnership Asymmetry 

Acknowledging power imbalances early allows teams to identify negotiation levers beyond pure technology. By using data to prove their value to the ecosystem, smaller players can influence the roadmap of a much larger partner.

3. Prioritizing Observability 

Instrumentation should happen at the start because waiting until a connection breaks makes the eventual recovery expensive. Building internal monitoring tools ensures that the team detects silent failures before the customer experiences an outage.

4. Maintaining Roadmap Flexibility 

Product plans must remain fluid to accommodate sudden API changes or new beta opportunities from the partner. This adaptability allows teams to reprioritize engineering resources when external ecosystem shifts occur.

5. Addressing M&A Integration Debt 

Brand consolidation does not equal system consolidation, leaving product teams to manage the gap between a unified identity and fragmented backend tools. This technical debt often persists long after the commercial details of an acquisition are finalized.

6. Accelerating Execution Through Relationships 

Direct communication with partner engineering teams often resolves technical hurdles faster than filing formal tickets. Investing in these professional networks creates a shortcut for troubleshooting when documentation or standard support channels fail.

Connect with the Speakers

Connect with Cristina: www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-flaschen/

Connect with Biljana: www.linkedin.com/in/biljanapecelj/

Learn more about Ledgy at ledgy.com

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This podcast is hosted by Pandium, the only embedded integration platform that facilitates faster code-first development of integrations, allowing B2B SaaS companies to launch integrations at scale without sacrificing customization and control.

Learn more about Pandium here: https://www.pandium.com/

To access more resources and content on technology partnerships, integrations, and APIs, check out our blog and resources page below.

Blog: https://www.pandium.com/blog

Resources on Technology Partnerships, Integrations, and APIs: https://www.pandium.com/ebooks