The Master Product Manager Part 7

The Original Article is on Substack on New Product Innovation Newsletter. Support me by Subscribing on the Substack newsletter

In the world of physical goods, connectivity and IOT has been regularly on the rise where product managers have been working with Technical Connectivity Product Manager responsible mainly for the app user experience and how the consumer experience with the app elevate the overall appliance experience.

If you look at the overall landscape of the tech world and physical goods including consumer electronics and the home appliances industry, we will notice that the lines between the different products are starting to blur out in more fast paced over the last 2 years. The main reason for this is the possibility to integrate more systems and products together in an ECO system. An ECO system would be more confined to the products in the same environment where the user interacts with them back and forth and where their operations is dependable on each other. If we are to look at for example Cooking appliances and Refrigerator with Online Grocery ordering., where they Integrate seamlessly together to order food and prepare fridge to perfect conditions to store the food and even pre-heat the oven to cook the meal. Yet an extendable eco system is on the rise with integration of for example, Solar panel recharging to achieve that net zero energy consumption for the home.

As a consumer you are easily overwhelmed with all these tech gadgets and ECO systems that sometimes you may use for some while but end up not using them at all. And this is where the Integration work between the technical product manager and the connectivity and software team should work towards making sure that the experience is not just delightful but encouraging to continuously use the product fully utilized in terms of features.

“A Product is not a Disney Land of Features. It is rather a PERFECT Roller Coaster that Delight the consumer”

Connectivity and Software Team

So, as a technical product manager, how should you work with connectivity and software team? You will find that the pace of communication and the way of managing the team is a bit different from your everyday interaction with R&D and technical hardware teams because the pace is completely different. For a software team, they release a new software package maybe every 2-4 weeks while your new products come in market every 2-3 years. This means that you need to have a switch in your mind to flip to allow you to go back and for the between the different teams in the most efficient way.

How to Work With:

Ensure Implementation of Agile Practices:

Implement agile methodologies to ensure quick iterations and feedback. As a technical product manager, you need to understand that the benefit of doing software is the fast pace of updates and releases and the ability to do A/B testing of new ideas and get feedback much faster than actual research. When doing agile, you need to be more mindful of the backlog of features and improvements planned on the software and connectivity plan and its integration with the hardware roadmaps and product launches.

One very nice example I faced was a project delay for over 1 year for launching a new home appliance which meant that the connectivity resources had to shift several of the resources to a completely different project to accelerate the update of a new connectivity module to match the new timeline of the home appliance product otherwise risk several outdated technologies being present in the market.

The Frontloading of the innovation must include going forward connectivity and software team for the physical goods. One reason is that companies are no longer selling products or services, but they are selling experiences and with the IOT and smart devices rise, it is just a matter of time that connected experiences will become a bare minimum in an appliance not just from use case point of view but from Eco system and extended Eco system point of view to integrate the entire home experience.

Technical Requirements:

Clearly outline the technical requirements and dependencies early in the product lifecycle. Now this is one of the most important points not just with the connectivity and software team but also with any team. In this case specifically, the hardware and software are quite dependable on each other yet the life cycle of each one is completely different. One Chip can have a lifecycle of 2 years while software’s have major upgrades every 3-6 months. On top of that, companies are now struggling more in this alignment as it is no longer in isolation from the outside world with connected experience dependency on Eco-systema and Extendable Ecosystem.

Thats why having roadmaps and alignment between the different roadmap types is very important and that’ s why the Yearly 5+ years roadmap Planning meeting alignments between the different functions will either keep or break the product development cycle. In such a product development environment, the rise of the need for portfolio management is much higher especially with cross product line dependencies.

You cannot expect to launch a cooking range fully connected while the fridge is not connected and, in some cases, this raises the need to have cross APP platform communication because consumers are not willing to buy appliances from a single manufacturer.

As a technical PM you need to ensure the following are aligned together:

1. Main Product Category Roadmap
2. Main Product Line Roadmap
3. Cross Product Lines Roadmap (Whenever there is a dependency driven from company strategy)
4. Connectivity Roadmap (With Integration of external main APIs like Alexa, Siri,…etc)
5. Connected Electronics Roadmap
6. Resources Leveling and Portfolio Mapping across next 5 years planning

Cross-Functional Reviews:

Involve the Connectivity and Software team in reviews that cover both hardware and software aspects. As a technical PM, having these regular reviews not just from a planning point of view but from an execution point of view to keep everyone in the loop is critical. Which begs the need for the rise of Integration Product Manager, who integrates the cross-product categories & product lines and delivers the Integrated Eco & Extendable Eco system. Some may say that this is a redundant job that can be done by the existing product manager, yet with the rise for more specialized PMs focusing on their key categories, the need for Integration Product Manager focusing on the overall experience and owning the cross category and Product Line.

Top Things to Do:

• User Experience (UX) Testing: Conduct UX testing specifically for the software component and for the entire Eco System of product and adapt based on feedback. The User Experience testing is probably where many fail and where probably most of the costs are later cut out from the product as part of cost down activities due to market competition is done. But you need to understand that the user experience testing is not just crucial to understand if the experience is good enough, it is also to understand what is needed and what someone might consider unneeded luxury that the consumer wouldn’t miss. Your job as a technical product manager is to ensure that the user experience testing unveils two important points, the great delightful user experience (however simple it might be), and that it is not really overdoing it

• Security Audits: Regularly schedule security audits and reviews to ensure data safety and compliance. I did an interview with several customers in different countries in APAC&MEA and I always get the same answer regarding not using connected appliances. It is either that the use cases are not good enough or it is because I really don’t trust the security of my data since it is connected to my network and all my phones and laptops are connected to it as well. With connectivity rising across different appliances and devices, security and data safety compliance will grow to be even more important. Sometimes in the next 10 years until the consumers reach that state of adoption without extra messaging, you need to ensure that your brand is trusted when it comes to data sharing and that this emphasized clearly through the different messaging and the different USPs.

• Interoperability: Ensure that the software can seamlessly interact with other systems, especially if the product is part of an ecosystem. Consumers won’t buy all their appliances from your brand, just deal with it on this aspect. You will need to ensure that your product connectivity system is able to adapt not just to the Eco-system of cross product line products and that they are seamlessly integrated together but also being able to interact with other brands. Whether it is Matter or Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) or Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) , all these attempts to make sure that the different brands and appliances have common protocols which means that they can operate together & communicate with each other with updates as well.

Top Things Not to Do:

• Ignoring Scalability: Don’t build solutions that can’t scale with increasing users or data. You are not building something to ship it and never hear about it again. Please, I really do ask you if you have this mindset to either change it or change your career entirely. “Products are meant to be scalable in their way to meet future requirements/demands and open new frontiers for exploration”. You need to understand that when you are building a new product and whenever you are adding connectivity elements into it, YOU must make sure that the product isModular: Capable to use the different modules similarity across the product so there is no need for repetitive work especially when you are doing new generations of products and whenever you are working cross platforms and cross product lines.Scalable: Your product must be scalable and allow not just the addition of new functions and products and integration to the mix but also allow larger number of user base to operate it without crashing or failing

• Skipping Documentation: Don't skip the documentation of APIs and software architectures. I remember working with a client who owns a medium-sized business, and his entire connectivity team left the organization a few years back. The problem was that he we looked at the documentation for the APIs and software architecture and what a mess it was, I was hoping that there would be something that we would be able to salvage and unfortunately there wasn’t. We had to hire the original software developers on a contract basis for 3 months just to make sure we get all the necessary documentation that allows the restructuring. It was in the end cheaper than starting everything from scratch. But you must realize that such issues can cause a disaster in the long term. As a technical product manager, you need to make sure that all the necessary documentation is in place and that the team ensure the continuity of the business even if they are leaving it.
• Ignoring Post-Launch: Don’t forget about post-launch software support and updates. I was happy when I launched my first connected appliance, it was just a happy moment for me. Yet what I didn’t realize is that when you work in a big company with multiple teams and product lines, resources tend to get a bit stretched out that it takes more than you aspire for post launch support and updates. You need to allocate a small team for the first 6 months of selling the product for the regular and fast updates needed for the new software and connectivity experience. You will find bugs however extensive testing you did. Consumers tend to find out stuff that sometimes you never thought of.

In the next article, we will discuss how does the technical product manager work with the advanced development teams. Stay Tuned and Don’t forget to Subscribe.