How Product Management is like F1.. hear me out!

After watching 5 seasons of Netflix's drive to survive, I've become an F1 fan! If you haven't watched the show yet, you can start directly on season 5 which follows the 2022 F1 season. The first GP (race) of the 2023 season starts today as I'm publishing this.

But the deeper I get into F1, the more I realize how similar it is to the world of product management, as well as the differences.

There are multiple entities and teams involved in making a successful F1 team. Let's break down each of the components to see how they map to a tech company and product management.

Race Track - This is the marketplace or industry where the team is competing

• Each track is different but shares basic standards like safety, barriers, a pit lane, road quality, etc.
• So each track can be thought of as a new market like APAC, Americas, Europe, SE Asia, etc.

Engineers and Designers - They map well to engineers and designers at any tech company

• Their job is to design and build a great car that will win races and the constructor's championship
• They are judged on the quality and timeliness of their delivery

Race Car - This is the product (hardware) that everyone is trying to build, ship, and tweak for success on the race track (marketplace)

Pit Stop Crew - They are the maintenance engineers

• They are on-call during races, needing to make quick fixes and maintenance to a car when needed
• They are judged on the speed of the pit stop and how little they disrupt the car's race (business operations)

Drivers - I like to think of them actually as the software