Meet the creative minds behind the Samsung Galaxy S5, Gear 2, and Gear Fit

Daniel Yoon is a product manager for Samsung's Mobile business where he has been working for almost four years. He joined the Galaxy S5 development process to manage partnerships in the product-planning sector. “One of our greatest challenges as product planners is managing the many variables that emerge during the development process,” Daniel says.

Product planning and development occur concurrently and there are constant feedback and adjustment processes between departments. Collaboration and aligning between teams is very important when discussing design and development.

For the development of the Galaxy S5, Daniel focused on what was important to the users. He thought about what the users considered to be most essential, and rather than adding functions, he went through deductions. He kept on asking himself: ‘Is this function really needed by the users?’

As a product planner, it is a difficult process deciding what existing features should be eliminated for upcoming devices. Daniel and his colleagues were tasked with making smart decisions to ensure the Galaxy S5 was equipped with essential and meaningful features. As a result, the Galaxy S5 came with 30% less pre-loaded apps than the previous device.

He considers smartphones an extension of the human mind. He took on product planning because he wanted to see the bigger picture. He thinks that a product should be somewhere in between human and technology. Daniel adds, “If it is only focused on technology, it is not applicable to people. Samsung’s products are used by many around the world and that it has an enormous impact. The fact that I can help develop products that make people’s lives better is a huge motivation for me.”

Sun Young is also a product planner in the New Business Development Group, where he was involved in the planning for Samsung Gear Fit. His responsibilities include planning, developing, and overall consultation for the device. Before he took part in developing Gear Fit, he was involved in product planning for the original Galaxy Note and Note 2. The situation was quite similar – Galaxy Note was a new form factor, different from the previous products. The product planning department puts together all of the agendas (of different departments involved) and organizes when the product will be launched, with what kind of features and what kind of strategies they should adopt.

The recently developed Gear Fit introduced new technology from the inside out. Sun Young and his colleagues researched the market on what kind of functions the users needed and learned that people were greatly interested in wearable devices and considered smart functions important. He thinks ‘selection and concentration’ were especially crucial during this project - only keeping the functions needed by the consumers and boldly removing those considered unnecessary. The battery parts that go inside were new; the UX was also new. In all aspects, he had to step into a new realm where no one had any experience and there were many trials and errors along the way. “I feel inspired when I think that my work contributes to the entire project as a whole. I believe Samsung Electronics’ strength lies in its ‘human resources.’ In here, everyone involved in the project puts forth every ounce of their energy,” Sun Young says.