Types of Product
All products must be an object. This is one of the most common misconceptions and mistakes about products; they do not need to be objects.
Everything around us can be a product, the computer on your desk, the email service you use, the kitchen sink under the tap, or the transit system in your hometown.
A product can be many different types of things that you use every day. And it can be something that you consider normal. Let’s look at some examples to better understand what a product really is.
Deconstructing a product
Let’s start with something that you can clearly identify with as a product, your smartphone.
Hardware
When you think about your smartphone, a lot of information about it comes to mind immediately. The first is the physical hardware, the phone itself. Includes all:
circuits,
processors,
sensors,
storage,
body, and
screen;
All those parts together are one product. And, each of the phone’s components are a product in itself and needs to be designed, built, tested, and launched. These are component products; they don’t do anything alone. They rely on other products to make them come alive, but they are key components that need to be created.
Of course, the hardware is only half of what makes your smartphone work. The other half is the accompanying software.
Software
You can have the iOS, Android, or Windows operating system. The operating system is the platform that connects the device’s hardware to the applications and interfaces you work with. This is a platform product.
A smartphone is a product that we can put in our hands; it is tangible, inside while they are hidden. We know that there are other components; each application or tool on the smartphone is also a product because each must be designed, built, tested, and launched.
Cloud service
Consider, for example, cloud storage. While there may be an application on your phone, the services allow that application to interact with databases and cloud storage to make it work.
Services are their own type of product, and there are pink and traffic hubs that allow systems to work. Sending an email, sending a text message, or uploading a photo all require that one or more service products be created to make them work.
There are technologies called Standards that are part of how software and the web work at a basic level. Examples of this are things like IP, or internet protocol, or TCP for transmission control protocol. These are the rules for how information sent by services is broken (grumbling).
All of these components, platforms, tools, services, and essential technologies need to be built, manufactured, and assembled. The process of how the product is made is, you guessed it, a product.
A product can be a process in itself. This makes sense for the phone in your pocket, but it also applies to other things; you need to build an airplane. The plane is the user’s product; it is what someone uses.
There are the engine, seats, entertainment system, cockpit, radios, GPS systems, and so many other parts that isolate a product and, combined, become a completely different product. Some standards must be met to ensure that an aircraft from one manufacturer is compatible with airports from other airlines. And finally, there must be a way for all of these things to come together and be manufactured. Also, a product.
Types of product
There are so many different types of products around you, even in places you didn’t expect. A product manager is responsible for ensuring that his product is designed, built, tested, and launched, regardless of type and how many others are necessary.