App vs firmware is the most expensive decision in a connected product
Every feature you put in the app is one your device cannot do on its own. Every feature you put in firmware is one you cannot fix quickly.
Where that line sits is the most expensive decision in a connected product, and it usually gets made in week one by whoever writes code first, with nobody in the room calling it a decision.
Move it later and you are rewriting both sides at once, on devices already sitting in customers' homes, across a version matrix where app 2.1 still has to work correctly with firmware 1.4 on a unit nobody has opened since March.
The cost of getting it wrong is not a sprint. It is a recall you cannot perform, because you cannot reach into the field and change what those units are capable of.
Draw the line on purpose. Write it down. Make your firmware lead and whoever owns the app argue about it for an afternoon, while the argument is still free.
https://lnkd.in/eUz2W2St