Someone left a prototype of your new smart speaker at a cafe, and the tech press is writing all about it. What are some risks that your team and product now face? How would you mitigate them?

Someone left a prototype of your new smart speaker at a cafe, and the tech press is writing all about it. What are some risks that your team and produce now face? How would you mitigate them?

 

Who am I - Lets assume that I am Google Product Manager 

What does the smart speaker do - Lets assume its a smart speaker which is voice based like a Google Home 

 

Lets see what all  can happen because of the leak 

1. What do tech leaks usually do - Now a days all brands leak some of their features to ensure engagement of its end users and to hype the product up . 

So this obviously is a good outcome in one way that everyone will become about the hyped up features 

 

2. Feature Parity is what most people do these days to keep products in line - 

In this case we run the risk of competitors getting to know all the features and including them in their versions of speakers 

 

3. Patent Loss could be another risk if all the new features are not patented and the device falls in the hands of a competitor 

 

  4. Hackers may gain access to this device - and you might have more day zero bugs if they have their say 

 

What is our objective - Our Objective is to 

 

1. Reduce the effects of the leak by press 

2. Protect our product from from losing out on gains because of the yet unreleased features

Options to Mitigate - 

1. Raise a criminal case - follow up with the police department and send in a legal notice to the press to stop writing about this . See if we can retrieve the device . This is the best possible solution as it will stop all the articles and even the device can be gotten back . But this is a legal option and may take more time and generate more noise than necessary 

2. See if we can expedite the patents if there are any unpatented tech in there.  This will prevent competitors from patenting our technology 

3. If the device is reachable wirelessly - see if there is a way to brick it . This will stop the press from leaking any features apart from the looks 

4. See if we can get to the market faster this will make the prototype worthless as the main device is anyway there in the market

 

Context and clarifying questions : Assuming I am the PM at Google and the prototype is at initial tech discovery stage and not production ready?

Risks involved are :

1. Proto getting into the hands of bad actors, which can cause a massive security issue to Google ecosystem.

2. If this is an under-the-wrap project and haven't had iota of tech press, then it risks competitors coming aware of the new concept/product.

3. I and team need to revisit the mission, goals and roadmap to assess if there is a need to pivot. Pressure mounts up for us to get the proto production ready or kill the initiative, inching towards brand reputation at stakes.

Steps to mitigate:

1. Try and stop getting access to the proto (remotely).

2. Troubleshoot, analyse and establish few protocols and process to avoid such untoward situations in the future in collaboration with tech stakeholders.

3. Once the mission, goals and worthy of this project is re-evaluated post the leak, expedite the velocity of development/delivery of this product if found worthy to continue.

4. Work with Marketing and external tech press to pause further unfurl of attention to the leak of the concept.

One or more of the mitigating steps can be run in parallel.