Philipp Echteler

// about

About Me

Product Manager by title. Systems thinker by nature.

I've spent over a decade in industrial automation – defining IoT strategies, building software products from zero to market, and leading teams through the hard parts of digital transformation. I care about outcomes, not roadmaps.

Outside of work: I run a homelab, go bouldering, follow VfB Stuttgart, and spend as much time as possible on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

📍 Neuhausen auf den Fildern 🧗 Bouldering ✈️ Florida ⚽ VfB Stuttgart 🏭 10 yrs Industrial IoT

// from inside sales to product strategy

A decade of shipping in industrial automation.

Owning the full product lifecycle for an industrial edge I/O platform within Belden's Emerging Technologies group.

Driving product strategy, roadmap, and go-to-market for a net-new platform combining IO-Link connectivity with edge compute capabilities
Accountable for the business case and long-term revenue trajectory of a strategic growth product
Working across engineering, sales, and leadership to align on positioning, pricing, and market entry
Translating industrial OT/IT integration requirements into a differentiated product vision

Product Line Management IO-Link Edge Computing Industrial IoT Go-to-Market Emerging Technologies

Leading the evolution of classic product lines through strategic lifecycle management.

Responsible for a cross-functional project team driving updates to legacy products
Focus on lifecycle optimization, market relevance, and sustained customer value
Bridging product management, R&D, and sales across complex legacy systems

Legacy Transformation Lifecycle Management Cross-functional Leadership

Led the strategy and execution of Balluff's entire software portfolio.

Introduced ADP (Advanced Data Pipeline): enabled customers to build and manage industrial data pipelines – a net-new product category for the company
Launched Balluff Engineering Tool: streamlined configuration and deployment for industrial automation solutions
Built and mentored the team; promoted a colleague to lead Cyber Resilience Act compliance
Owned product vision, roadmaps, go-to-market, and global rollout

Software Product Strategy Industrial IoT Edge Computing Team Leadership Go-to-Market

Contributed to shaping the company-wide IoT strategy.

Ensured the IoT strategy was grounded in scalable, future-proof architecture
Designed an internal Corporate Startup Program based on Lean Startup principles – empowering teams to validate ideas and build a culture of intrapreneurship
Defined IoT use cases, ecosystem design, and implementation roadmap

IoT Strategy Lean Startup Innovation Intrapreneurship Architecture

Owned a software IoT product end-to-end – tracking chocolate molds in production.

Managed the scrum backlog, feature prioritization, and customer presentations
Combined sales responsibility with product ownership from day one

Product Ownership Scrum IoT Software

Bachelor thesis: Strategic Marketing for Industrie 4.0. Started in Inside Sales before transitioning into product roles.

Industrie 4.0 Marketing Strategy

Currently exploring my next chapter in product leadership.
Open to conversations about complex portfolio challenges, IoT strategy, and legacy transformation.

Get in touch

// consulting & advisory

Advisory services built on 10 years of shipping.

Available for select project-based and retainer engagements.

IoT Strategy & Architecture

Defining IoT ecosystems from sensor to cloud. Device connectivity, data pipeline architecture, edge computing strategy, and vendor selection for industrial environments. From greenfield concepts to legacy modernization.

IO-Link Edge Computing MQTT Data Pipelines OPC-UA

Software Product Management

Product strategy, roadmap development, and go-to-market for industrial software products. Working backwards from customer outcomes — not feature lists. Experienced with SVPG model, scrum, and cross-functional alignment in B2B environments.

Product Strategy Roadmapping SVPG B2B Go-to-Market

Digital Transformation & Innovation

Translating technology potential into business cases. Portfolio rationalization, build-vs-buy decisions, and Lean Startup-based validation for industrial companies navigating digital transformation. I've designed corporate startup programs and run them — not just advised on them.

Portfolio Management Innovation Lean Startup Legacy Transformation

Let's work together.

I take on a limited number of advisory engagements per year — focused on quality over volume. If you're working on a complex IoT rollout, a struggling product portfolio, or a digital transformation initiative that needs a senior sparring partner, I'd like to hear about it.

Get in touch →

// iot & homelab

The lab is where product intuition meets hands-on systems thinking.

Everything self-hosted. Everything dockerized. No vendor lock-in.

Homelab Infrastructure

Core infrastructure running on Proxmox with fully containerized services. The homelab is where I validate what I preach in product strategy.

Proxmox Docker Raspberry Pi

Monitoring & Observability

Real-time dashboards for home sensors, energy consumption, and system metrics. Same stack as production IoT – just at home scale.

InfluxDB Grafana MQTT

Garden Automation

Automated irrigation with sensor feedback loops and remote control. Built because I hate dead plants and love closed-loop systems.

Node-RED MQTT Sensors

3D Printing Station

Remote print management and monitoring. Because walking to the printer to check on a 6-hour print is not how I want to spend my evening.

Anet A8 OctoPrint Remote Monitoring

// outdoors

Climbing walls. Chasing coastlines.

Weekend warrior. 3–4 sessions a week, indoors and out. Trying to fit as much climbing into life as possible.

Bouldering is my main discipline – the problem-solving aspect maps well to how I think about product. Outdoors I've worked up to UIAA 7. The next grade is always the goal.

UIAA 7 Outdoor grade

3–4× Per week

Indoor + Out Both disciplines

Florida, USA

Gulf Coast is my reset button. Warm water, no agenda, maximum decompression. My vacation homebase for years.

Worldwide

Industrial automation took me across Europe, Asia, and the US. Travel stopped being tourism a long time ago.

// homelab infrastructure

Self-hosted. Dockerized. Connected.

All services behind a single reverse proxy. No cloud dependency.

Internet

Nginx Proxy Manager Reverse Proxy · SSL Termination

Monitoring

Grafana MQTTUI

Automation

Node-RED NR Dashboard Homebridge

System

OpenMediaVault Phiole Webcam

// contact

Let's talk.

Especially if it's about product strategy, industrial IoT, or system architecture.

philipp@echteler.de