The Tangibles Product Manager
By Yoel Frischoff
The tangibles PM is not a software PM who learned some hardware, or a hardware PM who learned some software. It is a distinct role – wider in scope, split across incompatible time scales, and accountable for decisions that cannot be undone with a deploy.
Monday is a gate review for the DVT build – the mechanical team needs a go/no-go on injection mold tooling that will cost $180,000 and take fourteen weeks to cut. Tuesday is sprint planning for the companion app, where the backlog has thirty items and the team ships every two weeks. Wednesday is a call with a regulatory consultant about ETSI EN 303 645 conformance for the EU launch. Thursday is a supplier negotiation for a secure element that adds $1.10 to the BOM but satisfies ETSI provision 4. Friday morning, the firmware team wants to discuss an over-the-air update architecture that requires dual flash partitions – doubling the memory on the PCB that was supposed to be locked down on Monday.
Five disciplines. Five time scales. One product. One PM.
