Hardware launches go wrong in the gaps between teams. Putting the people who know the device in every room closes most of them.
A connected product is several projects pretending to be one: the device, its firmware, the companion app, the website and the launch film. Each team can do its part well and the launch can still go wrong, because the problems live in the gaps between them.
What goes wrong at the seams
- The launch film shows a feature the firmware doesn't have yet
- The app's setup screens describe a pairing flow that changed in the last board revision
- The website promises battery life measured under different conditions than real use
Keep one list of what's true
Keep a single feature list with an honest status for each item: shipped, in testing or planned. Firmware, app, marketing and video all work from the same list, so nobody promises something that isn't there.
Film what exists
Shoot real devices running real firmware wherever you can. Renders have their place, but footage of the actual product is both more convincing and harder to accidentally oversell.
Plan the first update before the first unit ships
Something will need fixing after launch. Test the over-the-air update path end to end before shipping, so that fix is a routine release rather than a recall.
