Hardware Product Management Notes #1 | Thought Process of Creating a Consumer Hardware Product
The idea of this article was born when I was looking for resources about how to do hardware product management from ground zero. At the time, the materials I found online are either for software or for experienced hardware PMs. Hereby, I decided to write one on my own by putting together the pieces of information I found helpful. This article serves more for beginners who are outside the hardware industry or who are in the industry but from a non-technical role.
To Get Started: How to make a cell phone? v.s. How to build ‘human beings’?
To understand how consumer hardware is born, I found it is similar to thinking about how to build a human. Hereby, if you don’t know where to get started with building hardware, you can use this analogy as your checklist.
- The brain and heart of consumer hardware are the processing units and memory. Processors provide computing power; memory stores all the knowledge, a.k.a commands, and functions. With them, devices can then think and operate based on pre-set rules. There are various types of processors — for example, a fridge with a touch screen will need much less processing power comparing to a cell phone. There can be MCU, Micro Controller Unit, or MPU, Micro Processor Unit, depending on the performance level you are looking for.
- However, only having a brain and heart is far from enough, human needs vascular systems and neuro systems to deliver the commands and signals. This is similar to the PCB (Printed circuit board) in hardware, which has conductive traces, capacitors, and transistors that connects together all the organs and sensory systems just like other chipsets, sensors, and peripherals in hardware. PCBs and the components on them make it possible for the processor to receive and send out commands.
- Organs are the chipsets that support the basic functionality of the device. They can be GPUs or soundcards that allow the device to “work”. Similar to humans’ organs, these types of chipsets are usually not able to react to what the outside world tells them — they only receive commands from the brain and heart. Hereby, to create the hardware that can react and “talk” to the outside world, you will need to add sensory systems.
- Sensors are the gateway to connect the device with users. Like our sensory systems (eyes, nose, hands, ears, etc), sensors also have various types, such as cameras, buttons with pressure sensors, touchscreen/display, temperature sensors, and humidity sensors. Sensors can be soldered to the PCB board, or connected externally — just like using eyes or using a digital camera. However, if you want to use an external camera, you have to first be able to “learn” and have to have “hands” to hold it. So if you want your device to be able to connect to external cameras, you have to build peripherals or interconnects (such as a USB slot, or AUX) and leave enough memory to make the learning possible.
- Among everything in the sensory system, one of the most prevalent and critical is the display/screen, like our “face” that runs all the sensing and communication functions. There are different types of screens available in the market. One of the relatively cost-efficient options is the 5-Wire Resistive touch screen, which has a polyester film on top of it. One has to press it hard using fingertips. This type of screen is often used in applications with lower requirements for image clarity and power consumption (i.e. GPS). For more high-end applications, the most widely-used display is the capacitive touch screen. Most of our phones, tablets with a glass surface and have to be activated with a bare finger.
- After you have connected all the functions in place. For human beings to “operate” and “be alive”, we need energy. Similarly, hardware needs batteries. This can be non-rechargeable 1.5–3V batteries where you can find the selection guidance here. Or DC batteries which are generally used in small appliances, laptops, and mobile phones. The battery slot will also be soldered to the PCB board.
Now, we almost have everything that a device will need to perform certain functions. Still, there are two things missing, which will ultimately perfect the whole process of one device receiving and delivering tasks that are needed and can be understood by users.
- First is the “language” or say communications, which is the firmware and software layer on top of the hardware. Firmware is the inbound language/codes built in the chipsets about how to work with each other. For example, you have to run interoperability tests for different parts, sensors, or externally connected devices before the prototype is put in use, to make sure different components can work with each other. In the semiconductor industry, there is often a standard validation process provided by different companies such as CPU vendors to provide design protocols and compliances. Such a process can help component manufacturers to standardize their products and go through qualifications to make sure their products can easily work with each other and talk to the CPU. Software is the outbound language/interface that can turn technical functionality into human language, such as buttons, interface on the touchscreen, or a mobile application.
- The second is the appearance of the device. This will be up to the industrial designers to determine the best way to present the look — for this part we can further elaborate on it in future articles.
Sometimes, consumer hardware can be as complicated as human beings when you start to think about what else should be added. For example, there are also sections like a wireless/network card that you can find on many devices. Here, I also concluded some key rules to help choose the right devices and facilitate optimization when entering into the next decision-making level.
Simple Golden Rules for Decision Making
- Power is the king. Previously in the server and data center industry, one of the key things I learned is that power is critical to decision-making when building systems. In hardware, there are “power parts” and “non-power parts”, meaning that there are parts that consume power and parts that do not — for example, a camera often consumers around 4V in on smartphones. While performance and cost are important, you can often easily find parts that meet your performance and the burden of cost can be shifted to the consumers’ side (not recommended). Hereby, lower power consumption is the threshold and will be the key to your device optimization.
- Better does not equal to better. With the first rule, it is not hard to understand the second one: putting together the most cutting-edge components is not always the best choice. Besides power consumption and cost, interoperability and compliance tests are also the concern. Sometimes, because legacy products (previous generations) have been used in the market for a while, upgrading to a new generation may cost extra. Security compliance is also the key to feasibility here.
- It is about the commodity market. Many of the semiconductor components are commodities, such as memory. The price has two types: one is called contract price, and the other is called spot price. Hereby, you may find component price fluctuates where can double or decrease by more Than 50% within a few quarters — this will be helpful to understand the demand and supply.
- It is a hyper-multi-player ecosystem. From manufacturing to selling, consumer hardware needs to go through multiple layers. Just like cars where the tires, windshield, and engine are from different places, every single part of consumer hardware is manufactured independently (some can be from one company). From the upstream, there are foundries, test assemblies and fabs to manufacture the chipsets, and brands to sell the processors and memories. Then, there are other component suppliers such as PCB makers, sensor vendors, ODMs and OEMs to design and solder the chips and board together, and the brands to put the finished goods together sell the end product. In the distribution channel, consumer hardware brands are not always the only people who sell the products(except those very big ones like Amazon). There may also be other retailers, agencies just like you can find Iphones in Target, AT&T outside the Apple store.
In all, the hardware industry overall is not as straightforward as it seems.
This market involves multiple industries including semiconductor, manufacturing, IoT, power, display, supply chain, telecommunications, retail, eCommerce, and more. However, once the product gets to the consumers, it comes to the story about software. In my previous experience, I found it very helpful to read the earnings call and financial reports of the key companies. For example, you can find demand and new updates about processors and GPUs in the reports from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm(MPU&MCU), and ST Semiconductor. Memory such as DRAM markets are a good indicator about the demand and supply and the key companies are Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. For IoT, the earnings report of Texas Instrument can also be helpful. For the consumer electronics market, annual reports and financial statements of Apple, Samsung, GE, Amazon are also worth exploring.
At the end of the day, there are a lot more stories that are yet to be uncovered in this industry. If you happen to come across this article and have any questions, disagreement, or any resources that you recommend. Please feel free to let me know! I am more than happy to learn and hope you can somehow find this article helpful, too.
