Managing hardware products for three years at Cisco, and later spending three more years working on pure software products at Zoosk and Pandora, Ross shared his perspective on the differences and similarities in managing Hardware vs Software, as well as B2B vs B2C, products. Despite a somewhat controversial belief that a good Product Manager is product-agnostic, will perform great regardless of what type of product he/she manages, he discussed the psychological differences in the work approaches and tried to identify what type of product might be a better fit for you.

1. Hardware vs. Software Product
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7. Ross Yesikov
TONIGHT’S SPEAKERS

8. HW PM vs SW PM
Which one is right for you?

9. Agenda
● Is a good PM - product agnostic?
● Differences between HW and SW PM work
● How to get the job and excel in it?

10. Is a good PM -
product agnostic?

11. What they ask for in a PM
● Technical acumen
● Experience with agile development
● Data driven mindset
● A/B testing experience
● Planning and story prioritization

12. Actual, real-life PM skills
● Creativity and open-mindedness
● Ability to influence others
● Drive, bias for action

13. But it’s not just the skills
Excitement
Motivation
Education
Performance

14. Differences between
HW and SW PM work

15. Definitions
HW: mostly B2B, but also
B2C

16. Definitions
HW: mostly B2B, but also
B2C
● Components: chips, boards, screens

17. Definitions
HW: mostly B2B, but also
B2C
● Components: chips, boards, screens
● End b2b products: CE, factory
robots, medical devices

18. Definitions
HW: mostly B2B, but also
B2C
● Components: chips, boards, screens
● End b2b products: CE, factory
robots, medical devices
● Infrastructure: routers, storage, etc

19. Differences: HW vs SW
3-5 years product life cycle New features added weekly
3 years
Documented, Marketed, Manufactured, Purchased,
Installed/Maintained/Used

20. Differences: HW vs SW
3-5 years product life cycle New features added weekly
No option for AB testing Every new pixel is AB tested
a b c

21. Differences: HW vs SW
3-5 years product life cycle New features added weekly
No option for AB testing Every new pixel is AB tested
Heavy vendor management Mostly internal stakeholders

22. Differences: HW vs SW
3-5 years product life cycle New features added weekly
No option for AB testing Every new pixel is AB tested
Heavy vendor management Mostly internal stakeholders
Financial responsibilities 0 financial responsibility

23. HW example
● Was assigned to manage this box
● Realized costs trended up significantly
● Drivers:
○ Hospitality industry in China (down)
○ Healthcare sector in the US (up)

24. HW example
● Was assigned to manage this box
● Realized costs trended up significantly
● Drivers:
○ Hospitality industry in China (down)
○ Healthcare sector in the US (up)
● Moving manufacturing to Texas from
Shenzhen would take a year and pay for
itself in 2 years.
● Had to forecast, document, pitch and drive

25. SW example
● Was assigned to manage “roundification”
● Identified all the places with square photos
● Wrote a PRD for the experiment (“replace a
square photo with a round one, preserving aspect
ratio”)
● Ran an AB test, proving 0.3% increase in app use
● Rolled out on iOS, repeated the same on Android
and Web

26. Another SW example
● Currently working on content insertion:
○ When is the best moment to interrupt ?
○ What is the optimal content to insert?
○ How long should the interruption be?
○ How frequent should the interruption be?
○ How many different types of content to mix?
Content1
Content2
C3
Content1C3
Content4

27. Another SW example
● Internal:
○ sales team
○ finance team
○ strategy team
○ internal tools for ads booking,
○ trafficking,
○ mediation
Content1
Content2
C3
Content1C3
Content4
ADs
● External:
○ Google, FB
○ HW vendors (Sonos,
Roku, etc)
○ Advertisers

28. How to get the job
and excel in it?

29. What are your skills?
3-5 years product life cycle New features added weekly
No option for AB testing Every new pixel is AB tested
Heavy vendor management Mostly internal stakeholders
Financial responsibilities 0 financial responsibility

30. What are your skills?
● No coding background?
● No AB testing experience?
● Managed 3rd parties and external vendors?
● Experienced with inventory forecasting or financials?
HW might be an easier match for you.
Just find the one that excites you.

31. What are your skills?
● Can’t stop thinking of improvements to the apps you
use?
● Mostly worked with engineers before?
● Ever ran an experiment or played with Google Analytics?
SW might be an easier match for you.
Just find the one that excites you.

32. How to excel?
● Creativity and open-mindedness
● Ability to influence others
● Drive, bias for action

33. How to excel?
● Creativity and open-mindedness
● Ability to influence others
● Drive, bias for action
● Educate yourself about your domain

34. Is it easy to switch?
● SW PM → SW PM: Easy
● HW PM → SW PM: Medium
● Not a PM → PM : Harder than medium

35. Recommendation
Lewis C’ book “Decode and Conquer” is a
practical guide for an interview prep and for
having general frameworks you’ll use as a PM

36. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, Austin,
Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, London, Toronto
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