Abhijit Limaye

3 Main considerations to start thinking about this - Size of the pain point - What is the size of the problem the feature is solving and is that the most important problem to solve? Return on that investment - Think about how you will measure that importance, and then maximize that metric. ROI can be revenue, competitive edge, user delight, customer satisfaction. Decide what works for your team / organization. Time frames & Resources - Especially when it comes to hardware, you start dealing ...Read More

Great question. The only certainty in forecasting is that it will be wrong. The question is to what degree? And how can you reduce the variance? Forecast is an estimate. There are 2 approaches to estimating the demand for your product. I recommend using both, and then to perform checks and balances, using the 2 methods. Top Down (Entrepreneurial method) - If you are a category-defining business, you are creating new markets. Evaluate what products are customers currently using and how does your ...Read More

Teams working in silos can be one the main challenges in HW projects. This can be Engineering vs manufacturing or supply chain or logistics or marketing. The success depends on teams that are 100% aligned with the goals of the business. Be sure to keep clear lines of communications. Engage functional leaders to make sure that they are all aligned with the business objectives, timelines. It takes a village to build a HW product and launch it. No job is small and everyone makes a difference. Make ...Read More

The list is long I am afraid. Thankfully most of those were logistical challenges, and not related to user experience or customer satisfaction. Be sure to run your product through sufficient number of early adopters, Beta testers. Here are a few logistical challenges - Forecasting - In one of my product launches, we ran out of our product in less than 1 week as we completely underestimated demand. It took us 3 months to ramp up to the actual demand. The lesson learnt - Think ahead and decide how ...Read More

Avoid cost-based pricing as it can be one of the biggest pitfalls related to HW pricing. HW costs can and will change based on the number of units you produce. So if you can afford to, take a longer term view of the business. Price the product based on the willingness to pay (to match the value generated by your product for the customer). Think about the pricing roadmap over the life of the product (not just the Price-at-launch). Does the launch price give me optionality to offer promotions? Do ...Read More

Before jumping to any traditional metrics, be sure that you understand the Business Objective. For example, your organization may use the hardware to create interest, generate consumer loyalty and may be a loss-leader. And in other cases, hardware product may be your whole business and you want to protect your margins. So the first goal is to make sure that your post-launch metrics are in-line with the company goals. Few traditional metrics - Sales, number of units sold, increase or decrease in ...Read More

First and foremost, HW & SW product management ultimately run on the same concepts - Customer needs and wants. You are still thinking about launching the right product for the market. You are still identifying pain points of a customer, and delivering what the market needs. So you already have a great deal of familiarity. Now, familiarize yourself with the HW product development life cycle. Know that the time between making one prototype and making 100,000 can be more than a year, even if it ...Read More

2 main frameworks to think about here. Can you identify a white space in the market? (Blue Ocean Strategy). What is the market missing? And do you have the big unlock that the market is waiting for? Don't get too attached to your ideas and feel free to ditch those that provide only an incremental improvement to the customer experience; What is your special niche. Is it technology? Is it distribution? Is it the software that you pair it with? Focus on the small section of the market. Knowing that ...Read More

Hardware products are increasingly becoming integrated products, i.e. HW is either a part of a service or sold with a piece of software. The more you treat HW/SW as separate entities, the harder it will become to present a holistic, comprehensive vision for the 'product'. Embrace the changes. Understand the ecosystem, and how hardware is going to become an enabler for selling those integrated services or software. Exploit the cool features of the hardware for the benefit of the 'product'. Embrac ...Read More