EP 107 - Product Management in IOT with Ricardo Vidal

Product for Product Management

Managing products that have both software and hardware is always more tricky than those with software only. In the past it was limited to servers and communication devices, and to very specialized machinery like medical devices, transportation and such. With the advancements of reduced computing chip sizes and improved speed and powers, along with cloud computing, IoT (Internet of Things) has taken our life to an entirely different level with new smart devices that can help us anywhere we are. From home devices to control things at home and provide reports of power consumption, to smart cars, and whole smart cities.For most product managers that have worked only on software digital products, it is hard to imagine what are the added complexities created with the addition of hardware development to the mix.

On this episode we met with Ricardo Vidal, Head of Product at Poppy, a Canadian company building IoT devices that provide instant, accurate HVAC performance monitoring for any indoor space, used by commercial properties and corporations to save energy costs, decarbonize buildings and keep occupants healthy.With a background in bioengineering, and then developing software solutions for the scientific community, moving into IoT was a challenge Ricardo willingly took, and he learned so many lessons building the different generations of Poppy.

Join us as we learn from Ricardo some of those lessons, and tools used by IoT product teams:

• Understanding the constraints when working in Hardware, such as; the process, time frames and when there is more pressure because of these constraints, access to materials and the supply chain, materials and manufacturing costs,
• Learn the terminology used by mechanical and electrical engineers
• Security issues that are amplified with connection from anywhere
• Specialized tools for hardware development, to manage Bill of Materials, cost of goods, change management, documentation etc.
• Connecting our IoT devices to the cloud via common Cloud APIs
• Firmware considerations for constant needed updates
• Using hardware prototypes for experimentation and A/B testing
• Grafana - real time data sensor testing to alert clients if there sensors are not working properly
• And much more!

You can connect with Riocardo at:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvidal/
• X: @rvidal
• Poppy: Poppy.com

You can find the podcast’s page, and connect with Matt and Moshe on Linkedin: -

• Product for Product Podcast - linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcast
• Matt Green - linkedin.com/in/mattgreenanalytics/
• Moshe Mikanovsky - linkedin.com/in/mikanovsky/

Note: any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.
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