Hardware Product Managers Can Learn Agile Thinking from Software Teams

Products have evolved thanks to improvements in agile thinking, Industry 4.0, and IoT devices, allowing hardware product managers the ability to incorporate new functionalities and controls from remote locations.  This new thinking in hardware manufacturing environments is creating a growing demand for sophisticated software teams in everyday production.

Software product thinking is taking agile to new levels, especially as software becomes an integral part of the product mix.  Agile thinking is helping product management teams create transparency across organizations, especially as hardware and software teams work more closely together in the digital age.

Hardware, Software, and Agile Thinking

Agile thinking and processes have helped both hardware and software teams scale without sacrificing time, resources, and money. Oftentimes, hardware teams have quarterly or monthly meetings in which they discuss product updates and relay information on status. Teams would give an overview and high-level interpretations of their project’s timeline but miss out on more frequent check-in’s, leading to delays and wasted resources.

With the advent of software management, these product managers began meeting more frequently to ensure their teams were incrementally delivering clear objectives throughout the product lifecycle, with frequent updates and a single source of truth. Emerging was clearer transparency across organizations and better accountability from management.  By accomplishing something that's measurable, agile thinking began helping smaller projects come together with less friction and maximum productivity.

Working Together

Software teams have the advantage of more flexibility and agility because of the nature of the product and services that they produce. Hardware teams move slower and through a more laborious process that depends on many external factors outside of their production capabilities. To meet the market needs of the digital age and remain agile through production, hardware teams need to work alongside software teams and collaborate on longer lead projects in more synergistic ways.

As hardware manufacturers continue to incorporate software teams into their everyday operations, it’s imperative both teams continue to work closely together to ensure participation and cohesion.  If hardware teams are not working in tandem with software upgrades and rapid technological changes, it becomes a harder to keep up with market demands and competition going forward. Bringing these two teams closer together and working in tandem means finding new ways of working together and communicating.

Product management teams have a new responsibility to help bridge this gap. First and foremost, both hardware and software teams must align with everybody around them. If multiple information streams are  provided, such as executive decisions, market data, and customer feedback, a single source of truth is needed to ensure all stakeholders are aligned to provide accurate recommendations.

Adding a single source of truth allows both hardware and software teams to consistently see where production stands, identify possible risks, and locate dependencies. This is important in larger, more global organizations as product managers look to move away from traditional ways of thinking and to relaying on more modern road mapping tools. Demanding and working on tactical initiatives that connect to longer term objectives that track progress more closely are top of mind for the new agile methodology.

Communication tools that span geographic boundaries is paramount in understanding global production and what regions will benefit from certain products. This allows both hardware and software teams to see market conditions and spot maintenance concerns, leading to more flexibility on strategy, repair, and direction. Creating extreme transparency and an agile environment for both teams create more checkpoints that help production scale and increases agility.

Maziar Adl is the cofounder and CTO of Gocious, a cloud-based SaaS solution for strategic product planning.