In today's advancing world of technology, innovations that once seemed impossible have now become everyday realities. Among these breakthroughs, the Internet of Things (IoT) stands out as an innovative opportunity, offering organizations the potential to tap into fresh revenue streams. From advanced sensors and no-code mobile and web app development to expansive cloud services, IoT solutions are transforming everyday life in new ways.
Companies are increasingly seeing IoT not just as a solution but as a catalyst for future growth, with 46% investing in this powerful technology. Yet, whether your organization aims to reinvent, enhance, or expand its connected physical products to meet the evolving needs of customers, navigating the product development process requires a delicate balance of speed, agility and flawless execution.
From identifying market opportunities to managing relationships and enabling strong data security, here are some insights and industry leading practices to guide your organization on its IoT journey.
The vision is often the guiding force behind a new innovative product, but thinking that’s the solution to dominate the product development can be risky. A vision without a plan can overrun budgeting, scheduling and resources. There should be an understanding of the “why” behind the vision and the effort it will likely take to make it a reality. This involves answering key questions about the opportunity, target users and the efficacy of the proposed new product.
Often referred to as the “discovery” phase, answering questions like these can help develop persona descriptions, user stories, product design and product requirements.
To help build the efficacy of your IoT solution, it’s important to follow a process that involves rapid prototyping — quick, iterative “failing” and refining — until you have a solid solution. With each iteration, product development teams assess the prototype, gather insights and feedback and then adjust as needed. The product is meant to evolve during this stage. It may shed some features. It may gain some. The goal is to create a product that can live up to your vision while holding up to the scrutiny of users, investors and stakeholders.
Using an Agile Scrum incremental development process can help create room to course correct early and often. This involves a multifunctional team working on tasks such as data capture and modeling, sensor-to-cloud infrastructure setup and data analysis. Breaking the work into sprints allows for more effective decision-making, prioritization of efforts and deriving actionable insights.
Rapid prototyping combined with data-backed agility acts as a guiding force, determining the pace and direction of the rest of the product development process. It also embraces the philosophy of failing quickly, which is important for success.
Product development requires not only a clear strategy and vision, but strong experience and capabilities in mechanical engineering. Your company should be able to define product requirements, design system architecture, drive connectivity and understand complexity of mechanisms and materials needed to build IoT-enabled devices. You may also encounter the need to know the techniques for high-volume mass production, assembly and how to gather and use data and insights to monitor production, the product’s health and user experience. Working alongside products, industrial and mechanical design professionals who have experience surmounting these challenges can help with these requirements and fast track connected IoT solutions.
As your product moves from design to engineering, prototyping and mass production, you may need a product development team to help preserve the original design vision. A design and engineering advisor can guide you through design changes that are needed, inspect prototypes and act as a direct liaison with critical vendors and manufacturing providers. The right advisor can help you deliver on your vision, so that your product looks — and works — exactly as intended when it ships to your customers.
The findings of our 28th Annual Global CEO Survey show that CEOs are reaping early productivity gains from Generative AI and rising payoffs from investments in sustainability. The challenge is to increase scope and speed.
As uncertainty eases, business executives are focusing more on reinvention, by embedding technology and investing in the workforce.
Reflecting on the findings from the 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, PwC leaders shed light on the unprecedented confluence of pressures facing executives today.
Russell Rasmus
Lead - Product Development, Manufacturing and Connected Products & Solutions Advisory, PwC US
