Beyond the feature trap: how manufacturers turn digital tools into revenue and relationships
About This Session
80% of smart home apps have one-star ratings. Most manufacturers building connected products end up with digital tools their customers barely touch, and by the time they realise what went wrong, they've already spent months and a significant budget going down the wrong path.
This session is about the decisions that separate the 12% who get digitisation right from everyone else. We're looking at what happens in those critical early stages, before you've committed to an architecture or chosen your connectivity approach, when the choices you make quietly determine whether you're building something customers will actually use or something that becomes a support burden.
You'll see how the manufacturers who succeed think about companion apps differently from the start. Not as a feature that ships in the box, but as a tool that drives ongoing revenue and builds customer relationships over time. We'll walk through the connectivity decisions that matter more than features, the business model questions most companies skip until it's too late, and how to structure your digital product so it supports both your commercial goals and your Scope 3 emissions targets without forcing you to choose between them.
We'll also cover the specific early mistakes that lead to poor adoption, the framework the successful companies use to think through these decisions, and what it actually takes to turn a companion app from a cost centre into something that generates value for your business.
This isn't about adding AI to everything or chasing tech trends. It's about making smarter decisions earlier, so you don't end up rebuilding six months down the line. If you're working on connected products, leading IoT strategy, or trying to figure out where digitisation fits in your manufacturing business, this will give you a clearer way to think through these decisions before they lock you in.
Who should attend: Heads of Product Management, Directors of Product, CTOs, and Chief Innovation Officers at manufacturing companies developing or planning connected products.