integrating product mgmt learnings soft goods hard goods by atul patel at productcamp twin cities...

Integrating Product Management Learnings for Soft Goods and Hard Goods

Sometimes managing products can be harder than managing people.

Atul H. Patel think.atul@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/atulhpatel

BLOG: www.thingsivenoticed.com

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/UH2L

07.NOV.15

Who Am I?

• Atul Patel (at least Tech Support can pronounce it)

• Product Manager for Equipment and Tools that

fix/maintain cars and trucks

• Mechanical Engineering Degree / MBA

• New addition to board of PDMA, helped organize this

ProductCamp

• Used to be an engineer in the automotive industry

• Have worked in Product Management of hard goods

as well as websites and data products

Sound familiar???

“I came to talk to you about ______

because it’s your product, isn’t it?”

http://beyondthinkinglikealawyer.com/

Hard Goods vs. Soft Goods

• For lack of better terms…

– Hard Goods are products that can be held in one’s hand

– Soft Goods are software or apps that run on hardware or other Hard Goods

• Who does Product Mgmt. better? Who really even does it?

• Each have their own needs, processes, best practices

• Rarely do we cross-pollinate in PM

• Let’s call ourselves HPM’s and SPM’s

“Hard” goods are becoming “soft.”

http://www.missmaryspreschool.com/

• What kinds of products do you manage?

__ Hard Products

__ Soft Products

__ Other Products

__ I’d rather not manage products

__ I wish I wasn’t in a room with so many Product Managers

Survey Time

Hard Product Considerations

• Hard

– Cannot refresh product in the field by updating it

– Have to create new products to replace or maintain what has already been sold

– Rarely is anything given away for free

– SKU counts matter, need to rationalize a portfolio

– Product must be disposed of, reused, or recycled

– Without obsolescence, a product could last “forever”

– Job security has to come from innovation and creating the next best thing

– Quality issues may become most urgent issue (safety)

– Intellectual property considerations, patents

Soft Product Considerations

• Soft

– New development methods, languages

– Software as a service

– Big data is out there

– It’s all in the Cloud

– Software replication costs nothing but product needs to make money

– Software for hard goods can be your products

– Future obsolescence helps job security, so does innovation

– Constant product updates can be annoying

– Quality issues often go on a list for a future update

– Intellectual property hard to protect

HPMs can learn from SPMs

1. Usability matters

2. Prioritize features based on customer needs

3. Test your products with users

4. Get feedback from customers on new features

5. You can help the engineers design what you want

6. Think in modules

7. Rationalize product variations (SKU’s,) features

8. Consumers get bored fast

9. Keep thinking about how to make the product better

What would HPMs like to learn from SPMs???

SPMs Can Learn From HPMs

1. Don’t design the whole product for IT

2. You might as well get it right the first time

3. Issues could cost people/businesses money and time

4. Some product attributes could affect health, safety

5. There are costs associated with changes

6. Don’t fix what isn’t broken just to be new

7. Think about robustness, factors of safety

8. Rationalize features

9. Pricing matters a lot

What would SPMs like to learn from HPMs???

What Have We Missed?

Final Lessons

• Different perspectives can be helpful

• Break paradigms when it makes sense

• Let’s connect and learn from each other!

• At the very least, we can sympathize and offer support

THANK YOU!

Atul H. Patel think.atul@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/atulhpatel

BLOG: www.thingsivenoticed.com

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/UH2L