It’s a really nice write up from an outsiders perspective. Would’ve loved some comparisons of the role of Product or ID design teams who actually play this role you highlight at places like Apple. I do think HW startups can definitely benefit from more product style thinking.
As an ex apple person I can say that their model is kind of different.
Their PM workflow is top down. Execs decide on product vision and the rest of the company executes, including ID.
At other HW companies like Amazon Exho or Google Nest, there are PMs who do traditional PM work, ideate on the strategy and then get buy in from execs. ID comes in after concept is finalized to help during definition phase.
Really enjoy the case studies diving into specific products and where things went wrong. Experienced pros always tell college grads to get working experience so you can make mistakes on someone else's dime, which is especially true in the hardware world. I'm working now to compile multidisciplinary mistakes made at hardware organizations and am hugely inspired by your work.
It is disappointing to see the lack of PMs in HW companies. Thanks for pointing out the importance of the role.
As an aside, in startups, founders rightly fill the PM role and first product hire doesn’t come for a while.
It would be interesting to explore SW founders vs HW founders. I would argue that in the software world there are more resources and expectations to learn the skills required to successfully bring a product to market.
Small companies that skimp on the "voice of the customer" always seem to find themselves down the rabbit hole of pet projects. I've been a technical lead on a couple of products that maybe should've spent more time in the "concept" and "definition" phases...
Thanks for the case study, I appreciate your unique perspective!
Having worked in failed hardware startup company. I have deeply engrained these principles of alpha/beta testing, field trials, observing the customers and showing the truthful evidence to the leadership before mass manufacturing. Skipping this step, will not just cost lot of money but might cost the entire company.
This does a great job at delineating the role of a hardware product manager and showing how it differs from conventional program/project management. It didn't really occur to me what these differences were earlier. I considered the terms to be interchangeable. Well done!
I loved the rant! As engineer's when we are launching new products, there are so many problems and trade-offs that come up that we didn't expect during design. We need guidance of where we should hold the line with regard to quality and functionality, and a good product manager is essential in that process!
It’s a really nice write up from an outsiders perspective. Would’ve loved some comparisons of the role of Product or ID design teams who actually play this role you highlight at places like Apple. I do think HW startups can definitely benefit from more product style thinking.
As an ex apple person I can say that their model is kind of different.
Their PM workflow is top down. Execs decide on product vision and the rest of the company executes, including ID.
At other HW companies like Amazon Exho or Google Nest, there are PMs who do traditional PM work, ideate on the strategy and then get buy in from execs. ID comes in after concept is finalized to help during definition phase.
Really enjoy the case studies diving into specific products and where things went wrong. Experienced pros always tell college grads to get working experience so you can make mistakes on someone else's dime, which is especially true in the hardware world. I'm working now to compile multidisciplinary mistakes made at hardware organizations and am hugely inspired by your work.
Appreciate it Wei! Lmk if you have any topic requests for the future or want to collaborate
It is disappointing to see the lack of PMs in HW companies. Thanks for pointing out the importance of the role.
As an aside, in startups, founders rightly fill the PM role and first product hire doesn’t come for a while.
It would be interesting to explore SW founders vs HW founders. I would argue that in the software world there are more resources and expectations to learn the skills required to successfully bring a product to market.
I just realized that I am commenting on an ancient post lol
Small companies that skimp on the "voice of the customer" always seem to find themselves down the rabbit hole of pet projects. I've been a technical lead on a couple of products that maybe should've spent more time in the "concept" and "definition" phases...
Thanks for the case study, I appreciate your unique perspective!
Well said about rabbit hole of pet projects
Having worked in failed hardware startup company. I have deeply engrained these principles of alpha/beta testing, field trials, observing the customers and showing the truthful evidence to the leadership before mass manufacturing. Skipping this step, will not just cost lot of money but might cost the entire company.
This does a great job at delineating the role of a hardware product manager and showing how it differs from conventional program/project management. It didn't really occur to me what these differences were earlier. I considered the terms to be interchangeable. Well done!
I loved the rant! As engineer's when we are launching new products, there are so many problems and trade-offs that come up that we didn't expect during design. We need guidance of where we should hold the line with regard to quality and functionality, and a good product manager is essential in that process!
Thanks for the share !