It's been so confusing for me to understand how different companies like Apple, Google & FB use these titles in Hardware domain? Can anyone here pleaseee help me easily understand what's the actual "day-to-day" work of these roles?! Which role really gets to create an impact with new product/concept and which ones' all about just slogging to keep the org moving? Thanks! I really appreciate your time!
Dunno about G or FB. EPM roles can be pretty different across Apple. In HWE, it mostly means timeline issues like !lyft mentioned above. Make sure all the part orders show up in the right place on the right day. But a lot of HW EPMs have a background in manufacturing engineering, and are also responsible for working with vendors to fix production problems and help them keep yields at acceptable levels.
Gotcha! If so are there just PMs for hardware roles ? Any idea extent of liberty they have in Hardware feature innovation?
No, They are mainly responsible for execution
EPM (engineering program manager) at Apple and my work is split half product manager and half project manager.
Are you an EPM? What aspect of product management are you able to do? Do you get to define a new feature for a hardware ?
Nice try. Try again. At Apple, poop comes from above. Minions keep their heads down and execute.
Basically if you have a PM in your title you get a lot of leverage to boss around engineers and get them to obey you. All PMs are first class citizens.
Really?! in the Hardware domain? I have heard software PMs have more freedom and get to explore feature sets based on customer / management feedback... But based on everyone's response I see Hardware xPMs are just Project Managers working for it's execution on time...
Lol no
TPM - program manager - you will own execution of a technical project. EPM - apple project manager - you will own the timeline and dependency coordination for a project. PM - Product manager - you will own vision and roadmap of the product..
Thanks! I am clear about TPM and EPM now... Trying to understand more on just PMs, if they do exist for hardware teams..
PMs are more useful for envisioning customer experiences but less about technology. If the hardware you are talking about requires cutting edge advancement then PMs will be less useful. If you are talking about what customers problems one can solve using existing technologies then PMs will be useful.