Unleashing product innovation: a playbook for product companies

Product innovation has always been front and center in the technology industry.  But delivering on great ideas and producing industry-firsts isn't as straightforward as it used to be. 

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Software, hardware and platform companies face intense competitive and cost pressure, an insatiable consumer appetite for innovation and a no-excuses demand for sustainable product delivery. At the same time, opportunity abounds in the form of booming vertical markets, more agile ways of doing business and an entirely new and productive way of delivering product innovations with the introduction of generative AI. 

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Meanwhile, competition is only growing more fierce, as businesses everywhere recognize product development as the key to growth. Consider that in just the last three years, the number of chief product officers at Fortune 1,000 companies has grown ten-fold, amid renewed recognition of how lucrative it can be to invest in and steer product innovation.

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Product innovation has always been front and center in the technology industry. But delivering on great ideas and producing industry-firsts isn't as straightforward as it used to be.

Software, hardware and platform companies face intense competitive and cost pressure, an insatiable consumer appetite for innovation and a no-excuses demand for sustainable product delivery. At the same time, opportunity abounds in the form of booming vertical markets, more agile ways of doing business and an entirely new and productive way of delivering product innovations with the introduction of generative AI.

Meanwhile, competition is only growing more fierce, as businesses everywhere recognize product development as the key to growth. Consider that in just the last three years, the number of chief product officers at Fortune 1,000 companies has grown ten-fold, amid renewed recognition of how lucrative it can be to invest in and steer product innovation.

In just the last three years, the number of chief product officers at Fortune 1,000 companies has grown ten-fold, amid renewed recognition of how lucrative it can be to invest in and steer product innovation.\r\n"}}" id="text-48ecf045d5" class="cmp-text"> In just the last three years, the number of chief product officers at Fortune 1,000 companies has grown ten-fold, amid renewed recognition of how lucrative it can be to invest in and steer product innovation.

To meet this product innovation moment, software, platform and hardware companies must rise to the occasion. From the first line of code to the final customer experience, they need to rethink and reimagine the entire product development value chain to not only succeed but survive.

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To meet this product innovation moment, software, platform and hardware companies must rise to the occasion. From the first line of code to the final customer experience, they need to rethink and reimagine the entire product development value chain to not only succeed but survive.

Embracing the imperative:  the growing significance of innovation 

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It's hard to think about technology without also thinking about innovation. New consumer preferences and demands are arising every day-in many cases fed by the continuous drumbeat of digital innovations that infiltrate their everyday lives. Talking to your mobile apps with a voice interface. A smart ring that tracks your workout performance. Headphones that can read your mind. Consumers will no longer settle for the basics or poor product design-a high bar is now table stakes.   

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But that doesn't mean innovation just happens at hardware, software and platform businesses - they have to continuously work at it and create a culture for it to thrive. Plenty of product businesses have let their initially groundbreaking products and services go stale. Or they continued to wow consumers with new features and add-ons that were too costly to support. Or they produced new products or additional features that weren't in line with new market demands or that only a sliver of the market could appreciate. 

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It's just become increasingly difficult to keep up with how the world is changing, with market forces perpetually redefining the rules of the game for what innovation is and how to achieve it. But that doesn't change the fact that innovation is a cornerstone of success in the hardware, software and platform product development realm.  

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The thing is, thanks to technology, there are more ways to innovate today than ever before. Technology innovation not only produces game-changing products and services-it can also support game-changing business models, processes, entry into new markets and ways to meet new customer demands for sustainability. 

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Embracing the imperative: the growing significance of innovation

It's hard to think about technology without also thinking about innovation. New consumer preferences and demands are arising every day-in many cases fed by the continuous drumbeat of digital innovations that infiltrate their everyday lives. Talking to your mobile apps with a voice interface. A smart ring that tracks your workout performance. Headphones that can read your mind. Consumers will no longer settle for the basics or poor product design-a high bar is now table stakes.

But that doesn't mean innovation just happens at hardware, software and platform businesses - they have to continuously work at it and create a culture for it to thrive. Plenty of product businesses have let their initially groundbreaking products and services go stale. Or they continued to wow consumers with new features and add-ons that were too costly to support. Or they produced new products or additional features that weren't in line with new market demands or that only a sliver of the market could appreciate.

It's just become increasingly difficult to keep up with how the world is changing, with market forces perpetually redefining the rules of the game for what innovation is and how to achieve it. But that doesn't change the fact that innovation is a cornerstone of success in the hardware, software and platform product development realm.

The thing is, thanks to technology, there are more ways to innovate today than ever before. Technology innovation not only produces game-changing products and services-it can also support game-changing business models, processes, entry into new markets and ways to meet new customer demands for sustainability.

Just as important as creating new things is the ability to create new things in new ways.\r\n"}}" id="text-766f274d2f" class="cmp-text"> Just as important as creating new things is the ability to create new things in new ways.

Consider the opportunities for process innovations that reduce the costs of running back-office functions and produce a more elegant and modern employee experience that top talent increasingly demands. These types of technology innovations are especially important in today's economically unforgiving climate, in which hardware and software businesses bear the brunt of paying high-priced scarce talent.

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In fact, just as important as creating new things is the ability to create new things in new ways. 

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Consider the opportunities for process innovations that reduce the costs of running back-office functions and produce a more elegant and modern employee experience that top talent increasingly demands. These types of technology innovations are especially important in today's economically unforgiving climate, in which hardware and software businesses bear the brunt of paying high-priced scarce talent.

In fact, just as important as creating new things is the ability to create new things in new ways.

Product engineering: a focal point of product innovation 

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Case in point is product engineering, which has seen dramatic change in the last few years. As innovation has become even more critical to the DNA of successful product companies, product engineering approaches have evolved to achieve it.

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Agile methodologies and DevOps practices, for instance, have completely upended how products are conceptualized, developed and brought to market. Design thinking principles have introduced the concept of empathizing with user needs, ideating to challenge assumptions, prototyping solutions and testing those solutions out. The shift toward microservices architecture, containerization and serverless computing is enabling greater scalability, flexibility and resilience in the design and deployment of software applications.

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Product engineering: a focal point of product innovation

Case in point is product engineering, which has seen dramatic change in the last few years. As innovation has become even more critical to the DNA of successful product companies, product engineering approaches have evolved to achieve it.

Agile methodologies and DevOps practices, for instance, have completely upended how products are conceptualized, developed and brought to market. Design thinking principles have introduced the concept of empathizing with user needs, ideating to challenge assumptions, prototyping solutions and testing those solutions out. The shift toward microservices architecture, containerization and serverless computing is enabling greater scalability, flexibility and resilience in the design and deployment of software applications.

The product engineering renaissance has given rise to newly invigorated and turbo-charged product companies.\r\n"}}" id="text-183da8e27d" class="cmp-text"> The product engineering renaissance has given rise to newly invigorated and turbo-charged product companies.

Meanwhile, in the hardware realm, the proliferation of modular design principles, additive manufacturing technologies, digital twins and 3-D printing have made it faster than ever to conceptualize, prototype, test and make new products.

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And then there's the cloud, which has amped up the ability for product engineers to experiment with new software and hardware products and scale them up or down as needed without having to invest in on-site compute assets and resources.

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All of this has led to a product engineering renaissance that's given rise to newly invigorated and turbo-charged product companies.

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But even more change is ahead for hardware and software businesses when it comes to how they do what they do-from using the latest technologies like generative AI, to taking out unnecessary costs, to ensuring what they make meets the sustainability needs of today.

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Meanwhile, in the hardware realm, the proliferation of modular design principles, additive manufacturing technologies, digital twins and 3-D printing have made it faster than ever to conceptualize, prototype, test and make new products.

And then there's the cloud, which has amped up the ability for product engineers to experiment with new software and hardware products and scale them up or down as needed without having to invest in on-site compute assets and resources.

All of this has led to a product engineering renaissance that's given rise to newly invigorated and turbo-charged product companies.

But even more change is ahead for hardware and software businesses when it comes to how they do what they do-from using the latest technologies like generative AI, to taking out unnecessary costs, to ensuring what they make meets the sustainability needs of today.

Five areas for product companies to successfully navigate product innovation

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Here are five areas in which hardware, software and platform businesses need to strengthen their product innovation muscle to continuously ideate, develop and deliver cutting-edge products that put them in front of the competitive pack.
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Five areas for product companies to successfully navigate product innovation

Here are five areas in which hardware, software and platform businesses need to strengthen their product innovation muscle to continuously ideate, develop and deliver cutting-edge products that put them in front of the competitive pack.

1) Gen AI has officially entered the product development lifecycle.

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Generative AI has taken the world by storm, but that's particularly true for product development-and specifically software development. The reason is simple: productivity. 

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From requirements analysis and systems design and coding, to testing, to deployment and maintenance, we're seeing productivity gains of 30% to 40% in the software development lifecycle with the use of generative AI. We expect in the next couple of years, those productivity gains will spike even higher. 

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By 2025, 50% of all software product development teams will leverage AI-based design tools, according to Gartner, optimizing workflows and accelerating time-to-market. 

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1) Gen AI has officially entered the product development lifecycle.

Generative AI has taken the world by storm, but that's particularly true for product development-and specifically software development. The reason is simple: productivity.

From requirements analysis and systems design and coding, to testing, to deployment and maintenance, we're seeing productivity gains of 30% to 40% in the software development lifecycle with the use of generative AI. We expect in the next couple of years, those productivity gains will spike even higher.

By 2025, 50% of all software product development teams will leverage AI-based design tools, according to Gartner, optimizing workflows and accelerating time-to-market.

We're seeing productivity gains of 30% to 40% in the software development lifecycle with the use of generative AI.\r\n"}}" id="text-f4f2bd7b4e" class="cmp-text"> We're seeing productivity gains of 30% to 40% in the software development lifecycle with the use of generative AI.

All of this means it's not a question of whether product businesses should embrace generative AI for software development-but how to best do it. The fact is, realizing generative AI productivity gains in software development goes beyond just giving a developer a gen AI assistant or copilot. Developers need to be thoroughly trained in how and when to use these tools, as well as checking their outputs. 

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Further, while more junior-level staff may jump to higher levels of productivity through the use of these tools, they also may need more assistance in vetting what the tools produce. 

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Businesses also need to understand the best areas of focus for generative AI tools, which can be applied to several aspects of the development process, including automated code generation, automated documentation, debugging assistance, code reviews and refactoring recommendations.

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The immediate productivity benefits will collectively contribute to a more streamlined and rapid development process in which teams can build, maintain and update applications at an accelerated pace. 

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The end goal isn't cost savings or labor reductions. Instead, it's the ability to do more in the same amount of time. This is essential for product businesses-getting features and functions and products out in the market more quickly. In a McKinsey study, generative AI accelerated product time-to-market by 5%, improved product managers' productivity by 40% and boosted employee experience by 100%. 

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Further, the use of gen AI in software development will improve the quality of life for developers, who can now hand off mundane tasks to the copilot. Developers are freed to focus on more complex and engaging tasks, such as problem solving and working with generative AI to get it done.

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In the end, it will be less a matter of competitive advantage for product businesses that learn how to make the best use of generative AI-but a vast disadvantage for those that don't.
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All of this means it's not a question of whether product businesses should embrace generative AI for software development-but how to best do it. The fact is, realizing generative AI productivity gains in software development goes beyond just giving a developer a gen AI assistant or copilot. Developers need to be thoroughly trained in how and when to use these tools, as well as checking their outputs.

Further, while more junior-level staff may jump to higher levels of productivity through the use of these tools, they also may need more assistance in vetting what the tools produce.

Businesses also need to understand the best areas of focus for generative AI tools, which can be applied to several aspects of the development process, including automated code generation, automated documentation, debugging assistance, code reviews and refactoring recommendations.

The immediate productivity benefits will collectively contribute to a more streamlined and rapid development process in which teams can build, maintain and update applications at an accelerated pace.

The end goal isn't cost savings or labor reductions. Instead, it's the ability to do more in the same amount of time. This is essential for product businesses-getting features and functions and products out in the market more quickly. In a McKinsey study, generative AI accelerated product time-to-market by 5%, improved product managers' productivity by 40% and boosted employee experience by 100%.

Further, the use of gen AI in software development will improve the quality of life for developers, who can now hand off mundane tasks to the copilot. Developers are freed to focus on more complex and engaging tasks, such as problem solving and working with generative AI to get it done.

In the end, it will be less a matter of competitive advantage for product businesses that learn how to make the best use of generative AI-but a vast disadvantage for those that don't.

2) New markets await.

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Many product businesses start out with a hardware or software offering that caters to a particular type of customer. The problem is, once that market is saturated-or other market entries result in increasingly commoditized offerings-it's difficult to maintain desired levels of growth or increase market share.

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One answer: verticalization. Verticalization entails solving industry-specific challenges that existing solutions aren't specialized enough to tackle.

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This is something hardware and software businesses are in a prime position to do. And with accelerated momentum in the auto, finance and healthcare technology markets, it's time for product businesses to seize the moment and lead the charge in helping all industries create efficiency and new possibilities.   By doing so, product businesses could unlock new levels of value from their product offerings. 

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2) New markets await.

Many product businesses start out with a hardware or software offering that caters to a particular type of customer. The problem is, once that market is saturated-or other market entries result in increasingly commoditized offerings-it's difficult to maintain desired levels of growth or increase market share.

One answer: verticalization. Verticalization entails solving industry-specific challenges that existing solutions aren't specialized enough to tackle.

This is something hardware and software businesses are in a prime position to do. And with accelerated momentum in the auto, finance and healthcare technology markets, it's time for product businesses to seize the moment and lead the charge in helping all industries create efficiency and new possibilities. By doing so, product businesses could unlock new levels of value from their product offerings.

Gartner expects that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives. \r\n"}}" id="text-f7932b9622" class="cmp-text"> Gartner expects that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives.

An example is the industry cloud, which combine software, platform and infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities to provide specific solutions for different vertical industries. Gartner expects that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.

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In other cases, product businesses could tackle a pain point for an industry or geography, such as specific regulations or data security needs. In all cases, specialization will be an increasingly important path to new revenue opportunities, as will integration within industry landscapes and ecosystems for increased market penetration.

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In particular, healthtech, autotech and fintech are prime areas for verticalization that will drive new business models and enable growth for both industry veterans and new entrants alike:

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• In fintech: Verticalized software solutions leverage AI and blockchain technology to provide secure, efficient, and streamlined digital payment platforms and fraud detection systems. 
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• In autotech: Specialized hardware and software advancements, like AI-powered driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicle technologies, enhance safety and performance while catering to the evolving demands of the automotive market. 
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• In healthtech: Verticalization enables the development of wearable health monitoring devices and telemedicine platforms that offer real-time diagnostics and personalized patient care, addressing the growing need for advanced and integrated healthcare solutions. 
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By focusing on vertical markets, hardware and software companies can not only innovate and deliver highly specialized products that cater to the specific requirements of these sectors, but they can also drive new revenue streams and stay one step ahead of the pack. 
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An example is the industry cloud, which combine software, platform and infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities to provide specific solutions for different vertical industries. Gartner expects that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.

In other cases, product businesses could tackle a pain point for an industry or geography, such as specific regulations or data security needs. In all cases, specialization will be an increasingly important path to new revenue opportunities, as will integration within industry landscapes and ecosystems for increased market penetration.

In particular, healthtech, autotech and fintech are prime areas for verticalization that will drive new business models and enable growth for both industry veterans and new entrants alike:

• In fintech: Verticalized software solutions leverage AI and blockchain technology to provide secure, efficient, and streamlined digital payment platforms and fraud detection systems.
  
  
• In autotech: Specialized hardware and software advancements, like AI-powered driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicle technologies, enhance safety and performance while catering to the evolving demands of the automotive market.
  
  
• In healthtech: Verticalization enables the development of wearable health monitoring devices and telemedicine platforms that offer real-time diagnostics and personalized patient care, addressing the growing need for advanced and integrated healthcare solutions.

By focusing on vertical markets, hardware and software companies can not only innovate and deliver highly specialized products that cater to the specific requirements of these sectors, but they can also drive new revenue streams and stay one step ahead of the pack.

3) You can do more with less … and less.

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Hardware and software businesses put a lot of thought into product innovation: the innovation that can be experienced, seen and touched. But that type of innovation shouldn't be done at the expense of back-office process innovations that, whether they're done well or poorly, can make the business operate like a well-tuned clock-or stop ticking altogether.

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There is simply no place in a product business for creaky, manual, disjointed processes. Whether a process directly touches the people involved with product innovation or not, ineffective processes will indirectly add hidden costs that will ultimately subtract from the funds and resources available for product innovation. This includes processes such as finance and accounting, human resources, procurement and supply chain management, marketing and customer service.

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Hardware, software and platform companies are increasingly realizing the importance of devising cost-takeout strategies focused on business process improvement and business process outsourcing (BPO). Both are essential to maintaining profitability and competitive advantage, especially with shrinking budgets and limited staff resources. 

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With business process improvement, product businesses can locate friction points in their processes and streamline them. And with BPO, they can hand off their non-strategic processes to a process expert. In both cases, doing so helps them realize substantial cost takeout benefits.  

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3) You can do more with less … and less.

Hardware and software businesses put a lot of thought into product innovation: the innovation that can be experienced, seen and touched. But that type of innovation shouldn't be done at the expense of back-office process innovations that, whether they're done well or poorly, can make the business operate like a well-tuned clock-or stop ticking altogether.

There is simply no place in a product business for creaky, manual, disjointed processes. Whether a process directly touches the people involved with product innovation or not, ineffective processes will indirectly add hidden costs that will ultimately subtract from the funds and resources available for product innovation. This includes processes such as finance and accounting, human resources, procurement and supply chain management, marketing and customer service.

Hardware, software and platform companies are increasingly realizing the importance of devising cost-takeout strategies focused on business process improvement and business process outsourcing (BPO). Both are essential to maintaining profitability and competitive advantage, especially with shrinking budgets and limited staff resources.

With business process improvement, product businesses can locate friction points in their processes and streamline them. And with BPO, they can hand off their non-strategic processes to a process expert. In both cases, doing so helps them realize substantial cost takeout benefits.

We've seen a software business gain more than $200 million in additional cash flow and $2 million in savings in the first 18 months of redesigning their end-to-end accounts receivables process. \r\n"}}" id="text-7955e08d9d" class="cmp-text"> We've seen a software business gain more than $200 million in additional cash flow and $2 million in savings in the first 18 months of redesigning their end-to-end accounts receivables process.

In addition to lowering costs, business process improvement and BPO can provide businesses with technological advancements, flexibility and scalability, as well as access to experienced and skilled workers.

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We've seen a software business gain more than $200 million in additional cash flow and $2 million in savings in the first 18 months of redesigning their end-to-end accounts receivables process. In another case, a software company cut time to market by 50% and reduced infrastructure costs by 30%.

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All of these savings can be pumped back into sharpening product innovation capabilities and continually optimizing proceses -which is really what product businesses are all about.
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In addition to lowering costs, business process improvement and BPO can provide businesses with technological advancements, flexibility and scalability, as well as access to experienced and skilled workers.

We've seen a software business gain more than $200 million in additional cash flow and $2 million in savings in the first 18 months of redesigning their end-to-end accounts receivables process. In another case, a software company cut time to market by 50% and reduced infrastructure costs by 30%.

All of these savings can be pumped back into sharpening product innovation capabilities and continually optimizing proceses -which is really what product businesses are all about.

4) Speed, meet savings:  introducing cloud FinOps. 

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Just as manufacturers rely on machines to produce the goods they make, hardware, software and platform companies rely on cloud resources to deliver their products. The cloud is what gives them the speed and scale to innovate at a relatively low cost. Product engineers can requisition capacity almost instantaneously, experiment with proofs of concept and spike workloads to any extreme to test and iterate on those.

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It's fair to say that without cloud resources, product companies could not do what they do. However, low-cost doesn't mean no cost, and product companies are increasingly becoming sensitive to cloud cost management. According to industry estimates, about 30% of cloud spend is wasted due to inefficient usage and resource allocation. So increasingly, there's a battle between working hard and fast to be effective, and at the same time being a good financial steward.

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4) Speed, meet savings: introducing cloud FinOps.

Just as manufacturers rely on machines to produce the goods they make, hardware, software and platform companies rely on cloud resources to deliver their products. The cloud is what gives them the speed and scale to innovate at a relatively low cost. Product engineers can requisition capacity almost instantaneously, experiment with proofs of concept and spike workloads to any extreme to test and iterate on those.

It's fair to say that without cloud resources, product companies could not do what they do. However, low-cost doesn't mean no cost, and product companies are increasingly becoming sensitive to cloud cost management. According to industry estimates, about 30% of cloud spend is wasted due to inefficient usage and resource allocation. So increasingly, there's a battle between working hard and fast to be effective, and at the same time being a good financial steward.

According to industry estimates, about 30% of cloud spend is wasted due to inefficient usage and resource allocation. \r\n"}}" id="text-1ad889b162" class="cmp-text"> According to industry estimates, about 30% of cloud spend is wasted due to inefficient usage and resource allocation.

Finding that happy medium is giving rise to cloud FinOps, which combines finance and DevOps to foster a collaborative environment between finance, engineering, and operations teams. Cloud FinOps ensures that all stakeholders are aligned in understanding the impact of cloud spending and are committed to a culture of optimizing cloud costs and accountability.  

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At its core, the goal of cloud FinOps is to make engineers more aware of being fiscally responsible for the resources it requires to be creative and innovative. And because there's more communication between engineers, finance and operations, there's a better ability to forecast and allocate cloud spending and understand how that spending relates back to business value. 

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For instance, if an engineer signals to finance that an initiative is coming up that will incur cloud costs, there's full transparency about what will be spent and why, rather than finding out about it retroactively. 

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FinOps will challenge product companies to make a few changes in how they operate. For instance, they'll need to:

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• Learn new best practices for optimizing cloud value, such as incorporating cloud cost awareness and optimization earlier in the lifecycle.
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• Develop new metrics, such as unit economics, which correlates cloud consumption to a business-centric metric, such as cost per transaction.
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• Use AI to reduce cloud spend waste by providing predictive insights into cost-saving opportunities.
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• Create a new culture in which engineers and product teams take ownership of costs and are empowered to manage their own usage of cloud against budget.
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When the product company reinvests cloud savings back into additional areas that require cloud resources, it can raise the effective value for every dollar of cloud consumption spent. By doing so, they can fully tap into the overall value of cloud consumption.

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With cloud FinOps, technical debt is turned into technical wealth, ensuring technology businesses get the most out of their cloud investments and make an impact on the bottom line.

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Finding that happy medium is giving rise to cloud FinOps, which combines finance and DevOps to foster a collaborative environment between finance, engineering, and operations teams. Cloud FinOps ensures that all stakeholders are aligned in understanding the impact of cloud spending and are committed to a culture of optimizing cloud costs and accountability.

At its core, the goal of cloud FinOps is to make engineers more aware of being fiscally responsible for the resources it requires to be creative and innovative. And because there's more communication between engineers, finance and operations, there's a better ability to forecast and allocate cloud spending and understand how that spending relates back to business value.

For instance, if an engineer signals to finance that an initiative is coming up that will incur cloud costs, there's full transparency about what will be spent and why, rather than finding out about it retroactively.

FinOps will challenge product companies to make a few changes in how they operate. For instance, they'll need to:

• Learn new best practices for optimizing cloud value, such as incorporating cloud cost awareness and optimization earlier in the lifecycle.
  
  
• Develop new metrics, such as unit economics, which correlates cloud consumption to a business-centric metric, such as cost per transaction.
  
  
• Use AI to reduce cloud spend waste by providing predictive insights into cost-saving opportunities.
  
  
• Create a new culture in which engineers and product teams take ownership of costs and are empowered to manage their own usage of cloud against budget.

When the product company reinvests cloud savings back into additional areas that require cloud resources, it can raise the effective value for every dollar of cloud consumption spent. By doing so, they can fully tap into the overall value of cloud consumption.

With cloud FinOps, technical debt is turned into technical wealth, ensuring technology businesses get the most out of their cloud investments and make an impact on the bottom line.

Unlock savings through FinOps

5) Green mindsets are giving way to the green imperative.

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When it comes to sustainability, most people think about consumer products, agriculture, shipping and construction.

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But hardware, software and platform businesses are increasingly in the spotlight as well, amid fast-changing environmental regulations and intensifying awareness about sustainability among consumers.  

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Rather than retrofitting sustainability after the fact, an ethos of sustainability needs to be embedded into product ideation, design and production at the get-go.     

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The fact is, from semiconductors to smart appliances, hardware manufacturers consume significant energy and natural resources and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. And in software, pressure is on to design software that's not just functional but also "green."

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This is why hardware and software businesses need to make sustainability a "now" thing-not a "later" thing. Rather than retrofitting sustainability after the fact, an ethos of sustainability needs to be embedded into product ideation, design and production at the get-go.    

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In the hardware industry, product businesses are exploring a variety of sustainable manufacturing techniques. These include designing for longevity with durable materials or modular components. Product businesses are also exploring eco-design principles that emphasize energy efficiency. Recycled and responsibly sourced materials are another focal point, as is reducing waste in production processes and promoting circularity principles such as product refurbishing and reuse. 

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In software, the focus is shifting toward reducing the environmental footprint of data centers, which consume vast amounts of energy. As the Green Software Foundation puts it, creating green software means reducing the negative impacts of software on our climate by reducing the carbon emissions that software is responsible for emitting. This means being attentive to three aspects of software development: energy efficiency, hardware efficiency and carbon awareness. 

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Product engineers can do this by paying attention to things like code efficiency, the number of lines in their programs, cloud features like auto-scaling and their data storage and retention policies. In the end, simply writing "elegant" software that is efficient and effective is good for the environment. Other factors-such as energy supply to the facility (ie, how much of it comes from sustainable sources) and physical distance from the data center-also come into play. 

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By adopting green practices, companies not only contribute to environmental preservation but also appeal to environmentally conscious consumers, enhancing brand reputation and customer loyalty.
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5) Green mindsets are giving way to the green imperative.

When it comes to sustainability, most people think about consumer products, agriculture, shipping and construction.

But hardware, software and platform businesses are increasingly in the spotlight as well, amid fast-changing environmental regulations and intensifying awareness about sustainability among consumers.

Rather than retrofitting sustainability after the fact, an ethos of sustainability needs to be embedded into product ideation, design and production at the get-go.

The fact is, from semiconductors to smart appliances, hardware manufacturers consume significant energy and natural resources and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. And in software, pressure is on to design software that's not just functional but also "green."

This is why hardware and software businesses need to make sustainability a "now" thing-not a "later" thing. Rather than retrofitting sustainability after the fact, an ethos of sustainability needs to be embedded into product ideation, design and production at the get-go.

In the hardware industry, product businesses are exploring a variety of sustainable manufacturing techniques. These include designing for longevity with durable materials or modular components. Product businesses are also exploring eco-design principles that emphasize energy efficiency. Recycled and responsibly sourced materials are another focal point, as is reducing waste in production processes and promoting circularity principles such as product refurbishing and reuse.

In software, the focus is shifting toward reducing the environmental footprint of data centers, which consume vast amounts of energy. As the Green Software Foundation puts it, creating green software means reducing the negative impacts of software on our climate by reducing the carbon emissions that software is responsible for emitting. This means being attentive to three aspects of software development: energy efficiency, hardware efficiency and carbon awareness.

Product engineers can do this by paying attention to things like code efficiency, the number of lines in their programs, cloud features like auto-scaling and their data storage and retention policies. In the end, simply writing "elegant" software that is efficient and effective is good for the environment. Other factors-such as energy supply to the facility (ie, how much of it comes from sustainable sources) and physical distance from the data center-also come into play.

By adopting green practices, companies not only contribute to environmental preservation but also appeal to environmentally conscious consumers, enhancing brand reputation and customer loyalty.

Moving forward with product innovation

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For product companies, the significance of innovation cannot be overstated. By embracing emerging trends, harnessing transformative technologies, and prioritizing sustainability, product engineering and development teams can navigate the complexities of today and unlock new opportunities for growth, differentiation and value creation.

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Want to learn more about how to foster an innovative product engineering organization? Tune into our product innovation podcast.
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Moving forward with product innovation

For product companies, the significance of innovation cannot be overstated. By embracing emerging trends, harnessing transformative technologies, and prioritizing sustainability, product engineering and development teams can navigate the complexities of today and unlock new opportunities for growth, differentiation and value creation.

Want to learn more about how to foster an innovative product engineering organization? Tune into our product innovation podcast.

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