Merging My Two Paths
Image credit here.
Back in 2014, I started a side hustle called theProductPath to expand my experiences as a professional Software Product Manager. There, I invested in creating and launching my own product for Product Managers. I also wrote a 52-article series called A Year in the Life of a PM. And most importantly perhaps, I also started a local community group called PM Peers in Chicago for like-minded colleagues that still meets monthly to this day!
Many years have passed, and I still love working in Product Management. In launching theRenewablePath.com, I now want to focus my career on putting those skills to use in the area of renewable energy. It is my intent to merge these two paths over time.
I am still ramping up on all things energy-related and along with the related climate change topics, it’s truly making my head spin. At first, I wasn’t sure there was a need for software professionals like myself as everything I was reading seemed to be highlighting other Engineering fields as well as expertise in physics, chemistry and biology and all the interdisciplinary environmental sciences.
I could also see where policy makers had a big role to play along with regulators, professional lobbyists and activists. There were large companies running utility companies, smaller companies installing solar panels on homes and buildings, and car companies racing to build better EVs.
But what was not obvious at first was where computer software applications would be needed.
I didn’t know anyone that had software jobs in energy, renewable or otherwise.
Where would I fit in?
Image credit here.
Most of my peers were working in FinTech or Health Care or eCommerce or Marketing Automation or some form of online media. Maybe there was a reason I couldn’t make a connection to this new (for me) energy space.
I decided not to overthink it. First, I needed to learn a lot more about this massive plan referred to as the Energy Transition - that’s what I ultimately latched on to. Most of what I was reading about and hearing in the news tied back to the global movement that is underway to move the planet off of fossil fuels onto cleaner, easier-to-renew energy sources. That movement is being hastened along by the dire warnings associated with climate change - but that’s not my path.
First, I needed to learn a lot more about this massive plan referred to as the Energy Transition
As I began to wrap my brain around the problems associated with electrification, with introducing intermittent solar- and wind-based power to our grids, with long duration energy storage, with ensuring a just transition for everyone currently attached to carbon-based power industries, with energy poverty and so on…, I started noticing that some early champions were emerging.
It then took me some time to learn about the kinds of companies that were stepping up to address these challenges and from there, I began to search for employees in these companies with titles that I recognized.
Short story is there is hope for me after all!
As I started to align what I had learned over 30 years in my professional life with the current & future opportunities that exist with the Energy Transition movement, I started to see the landscape take shape.
Image credit here.
I have started to do some early career mapping for my own needs and have been working with this simplified model to organize my thoughts. I am envisioning three “tiers” of software applications:
Tier 1: Proprietary, innovative solutions
It is now clear to me and to many others that I’m slowly catching up to that this Energy Transition is going to require solutions that don’t yet exist at scale. We are going to see tremendous innovation across many sectors as big companies and smaller entrepreneurs alike race to take advantage of the changes brought about as a result of moving away from fossil fuels. Those solutions will likely require new, proprietary software that is targeted at solving very specific needs. Hypothesis-driven customer research, rapid prototyping and validating early MVPs are pragmatic tools that the Product Manager brings to the table and will serve these forward-thinking organizations well.
Take EV charging stations for example. Strong product thinking will help teams work through both machine and user interfaces to ensure this new equipment is robust and embraced by consumers and the businesses that serve them.
Tier 2: System integrations & connectivity
As the point solutions spring up and get battle tested, we will see an inevitable wave of integration software emerge. We will be able to tackle larger opportunities by piecing together multiple, single-purpose products into chains of inter-connected systems.
Enterprise software product managers have been doing this work for decades and are quite familiar with creating and connecting (API) interfaces between software products.
To extend the previous example, a bank of EV charging stations in a parking garage might benefit from being connected to a credit card processor to allow customers to “pay at the pump”. Or perhaps an EV owner can use an app on their phone to locate and reserve time at a nearby charging station while running errands.
Tier 3: Standard customer and business systems
The most obvious (and perhaps least exciting for me at least :) tier of software are the systems that are used consistently across all major verticals. Many of us are familiar with such software platforms that manage new and existing customer accounts, that aid in targeting/marketing to/retaining customers, field and help resolve customer support issues, etc.
A company that is rolling out EV charging stations is eventually going to need some versions of these systems as they grow their own customer base. At this level, however, there is likely less industry-specific requirements that might warrant new solutions, and most could be satisfied with off-the-shelf options.
To be clear, there are still capable software product managers building and maintaining these systems too - they just have less to do with the Energy Transition and therefore hold less interest for me personally.
Final thoughts
I am still only a few months in on my own journey and have so much more to learn. But I have become more confident that my experience and the skills I’ve acquired in my craft will serve me well as I head further down this renewable path.
Along the way, I will seek out other Product folks and intend to share here what I learn from them. I believe that it will take many, many smart people to truly move us forward - and to mimic the words of Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes, “there isn’t any time to waste then, is there?”