In industry 4.0, managing the disruptive innovation is the key of successful product/project management and especially when it comes to IoT or IIoT, the conventional way of managing product or projects are not going to be prudent anymore.
Internet of Things is like a buzz word in the town, everyone talks about it but very few understand the same deeply at the core and specialized in IoT product/project management. These days many organizations are kick-starting their IoT product/project initiatives but underestimate the complexity of the initiative and eventually fail or marginally achieving the ROIs.
This industry is very young and dynamic in nature, and it may seem simple to understand but when it comes to execution-it’s a herculean task and need specialized product/project managers to acquire new skillset or hire the right talent for the job. It’s as simple as that – whatever skillset contributed to your success in a conventional environment of product or project management, will no longer be useful or may lead to failure if implemented.
So it’s no surprise that project or product managers have to understand the pitfalls of IoT Product management, and I am going to share few essential points which make IoT product management a joyride for professionals like engineers, data scientists, designers, and of course, IoT Product/Project Managers.
1. Basics must be clear: Every project or product manager including the team must have a solid knowledgebase of their skillset and the objective must be adding values to your customer’s organization.
Experienced technology project/product manager’s always ahead of the curve as they understand the pain points of all the stakeholders. The critical success factors are understanding and validating user’s requirements, creating a neat business case, defining and prioritizing requirements, building product roadmaps, working with engineering teams hand in hand, managing up and more without organizational silos to monetize IoT product/project benefits
2. Understanding IoT Technology Stack: We can’t just manage IoT projects/products like any conventional IT project. If you are leading a team you need to be an expert in at least one mentioned layer of the system :
- Device Hardware
- Embedded Device Firmware Software
- Communications Technology – Protocols, Modules, etc.
- Cloud Platform
- Cloud Applications Integration & Data Injection, Analysis.
IoT products and projects are a lot more complicated than just a SaaS or Cloud product, which only has the integration of different virtualized cloud components. As each of these five layers could be considered a product on its own so managing IoT product is like managing a portfolio of five products. The major challenge of IoT Project/Product Management is that you have to understand the interdependencies and relationships of all these five layers. This is a blessing in disguise if you work in a tiny startup to manage an end-to-end IoT solution, this will lead to an enormous learning and knowledge gain in managing the entire product and project simultaneously.
And this experience will establish you as a T-Shaped product manager in the organization. An IoT product and project manager need to have solid horizontal expertise of all five layers of the IoT technology stack and then a complement of in-depth vertical knowledge in one of the IoT stack will give you the expertise to how the integrated environment delivers the value to the customer.
3. Employer Selection – Fixing Things or Massive Innovation: It’s all hazy out there when it comes to IoT in India, product, service, or consulting, we all talk about and understand it’s all the same. Product-based organizations as the name imply they are building IoT products from scratch and generate revenues by selling the same in B2B or B2C business model. They manage end-to-end product management by utilizing full five layers of IoT Technology Stack.
IoT Service organizations have a wide range of services that span the whole lifecycle of IoT products, including, development outsourcing, implementation, deployment, field services, service operations, and asset management. The service organizations usually develop internal tools or products to accelerate the deployment or providing better service management of IoT infrastructure.
Organizations implementing IoT for internal usage are those, who are looking at IoT as a new way of solving their existing business problems. The goal of the initiative is not to release an IoT product in the market but utilize the existing product or equipment, connect it to the internet so they can visualize or optimize their process for better-informed decisions.
IoT Consulting Firms are the organization that is acting as a bridge between the business and the technology and helps clients effectively capitalize on IoT technology and advice for solutions, linking the technology vendors and customers through a holistic business model or project management.
4. Industry Specific Competencies: The Internet of things is an enabler that encompasses everything from household appliances to smartwatches or self-driving cars. This lack of clarity makes IoT project or product management much more complex and challenging.
If you want to be a successful IoT product/project manager you should focus on an industry in which you will be able to leverage your existing domain knowledge. This will give you a competitive advantage to discuss your candidature with the performing organizations and your control over the deliverables will be great.
5. Participate in Active learning: The best way to learn a new technology is to involve yourself with the community, join the open-source forums, groups and learn from the people who are already in the industry. Create a virtual project or product based on IoT and drive it through the documentation from Requirement analysis to implementation or go to market strategy.
Conclusion: The 5G rollout will revolutionize our life and the business eco-system, disruptive innovation will create new opportunities to grow your skills and be a part of the most innovative areas of technology today. By carefully navigating your career as a T-Shaped IoT product/project manager you will have a better chance of breaking into great fulfilling corporate exposure.
