The Convergence of Hardware & Software PMs for Connected Devices

Ever since my Kindle days a decade ago, I've been keenly aware that working on a product that combines hardware + software into a unified customer experience is some of the hardest product building you'll ever do. Whether you are a hardware PM or a software PM, having a working understanding of all the handshakes and round-trip communication is key to building a functional, performant, seamless, high-quality experience.

Working on connected devices introduces some unique challenges that really test your mettle as a PM. This includes things like being unable to update devices in the wild, trying to troubleshoot issues without logs, and needing to find product-market at multiple levels of UX. Ultimately, the hardware relies on software to unleash the magic of the device, but the software is limited by the capabilities of the hardware. And sometimes you end up in an agonizing space where you need the hardware to receive and install an upgrade to unlock latent feature, but over-the-air software updates never get to 100% of devices.

PMs who specialize in hardware vs software have different mentalities, methodologies, cultures, and constraints, but communication between them is essential for the sake of the customer experience. I’ve written before about the evolving definition of product management, and when it comes to connected devices the need for PMs to blur boundaries and operate end-to-end is even more critical. As more types of connected devices / experiences come to market, expect more convergence between these roles.

During my time leading new product launches on the Kindle team at Amazon, we had PM orgs that operated at different levels (hardware, firmware, software, services) and it was interesting to see how they had layered definitions of done; the hardware PM was focused on production ready hardware that could be consistently produced by a factory, the firmware PM wanted a device that booted up properly and passed diagnostics, the software PM worried about the on-device code being bug free and operational, and the services PM worked on ensuring last mile experiences like content purchase and delivery functioned smoothly. And while I write about those learnings from my Amazon ternure from time to time, I think there's a shortage of compelling and useful content for "connected device" PMs who are looking to level up.

If this is a topic you’d like to dive deeper into, I’m co-hosting a live, free tech talk later this week with the Head of Product at ARENA - you can learn more and sign up via the link below!

UPDATE: the event is over, but you can find a recap / recording here

We’ll be covering a range of topics, including

• the proliferation of connected devices

• the convergence of HW/SW PM roles

• examples of great connected products

• companies that do this well / terribly

• different business / monetization models

• startup ideas / new verticals to purse

As always, I’d love to hear from readers who are exploring building connected devices - please chime in via comments👇 or join the chat via the Substack app.

And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.

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further reading / references

• you can read more of my war stories from my Amazon Kindle days here

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childish drawing / interpretation