IoT development is not easy !
I have to admit that when I undertook my first IoT project in 2012, my perception of a successful IoT product was very primitive. At the time, I figured that since I knew both the software and the hardware worlds, it was a great opportunity for me to utilize my experience for a perfect marriage of both domains to create a new IoT product line for the company. With 15 years of software, app and cloud development along with 9 years of device design and manufacturing experience, I felt quite confident that I was going to be able to take the project from proof-of-concept to the finished product faster than anyone else. After all, it was just a matter of creating a mobile app and a server side app to communicate with the embedded system and sensors by using the appropriate wireless protocol. Or so I thought.
I had a brilliant team of engineers that had the capability and the drive to handle any kind of engineering complexity. Every one in the team went above and beyond the call of duty to achieve the defined milestone. We completed the electronics, firmware, app and cloud development before our deadline and well within our budget. We also had all the bells and whistles that we thought would make our products attractive including an Alexa skill to interact with our devices using voice commands. Looking back, the devices that I considered 'finished products' were just the beginning of my IoT journey. Never in my life I have gotten something so wrong. Just to clarify for those of you who have not been exposed to the IoT development that these products would have been perfectly marketable manufacturing ready finished designs if they did not have to carry the label of "Smart IoT Device".
My list of lessons learned is a long one but if I had to sum it up and pick the most critical areas for the success of an IoT project, they are the the 'data' and the 'user experience. While we knew that the data will eventually be the key IoT business driver but we did not know exactly how? We made the classic of mistake of simply ignoring the data part until we had enough devices in the market to collect sufficient data and do something with it. It made logical sense at the time but, in retrospect, not making data the front and center of IoT development is probably the biggest blunder a project lead can make. Another killer of the IoT products is anything less than 'stunning' user experience. If the team is not obsessed with the UX, chances are very high that they will fail to realize the technology and the knowledge gaps in creating a successful IoT product.
Development of IoT products requires the project leads to know many facets of technology including industrial design, electronics, sensors, firmware, software, mobile apps, networking, communication protocols, data ingestion, stream processing, realtime/batch analytics, device security, data storage, data lifecycle management, cloud setup/management, scalability, access management and over-the-air (OTA) updates to name a few. They also have to be business savvy enough to tie the engineering implementation to an effective marketing strategy. At the end, I realized it the hard way that I had so much to learn from engineering and strategy perspective. There was so much more to IoT than just a device that can be controlled with your app and voice.
Finally, when the reality of IoT dawned on me, I was quite hard on myself for not fully understanding how deep the rabbit hole goes. Being the engineering lead, I trivialized everything and, consequently, I ended up grossly underestimating the effort, the skillset and the investment required to bring a successful IoT product to the market.
For the past few years, while working with different companies to untangle the mysteries of IoT in order to figure out how to engineer and market great IoT products. I came to know that the challenges experienced by us in our first project were not unique. As a matter of fact, not many companies understand the depth and breadth of the IoT before jumping on the bandwagon. In many cases, they do not even know that what kind of talent to bring on board for the IoT projects. Even if they manage to assemble a decent engineering team, they may lack the leadership that has the knowledge to orchestrate the engineering effort and implement a comprehensive business strategy.
The biggest enemy of an IoT project are the false business expectation that are set by the leadership based on the IoT hype and the lack of understanding of the challenges to implement it. The chances of success in the IoT realm can be increased tremendously by treating it like a marathon instead of a sprint. Fast forward 6 years and I still find myself getting up to speed on the technology and strategy to effectively manage IoT projects for ultimate success.
Everyone in our management team was convinced that once we were done, the world will be all over our devices and the business will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue by selling the so called 'Smart Devices'. At the end, I came to terms with my choices and decision as it is our audacity to dream big things that pushes us to the boundaries of our potential and turns us into battle hardened generals in order to conquer the new frontiers.
