Propelling Public Safety Technology into the Future with Keshav Vasudevan

By Jason Margaca 

In a technology landscape defined by the ever-evolving field of product development, deployments and innovation management, Keshav Vasudevan stands as a driving product force in productizing transformative technologies for both the private sector and now public safety. His work at Prepared has not only propelled the sector forward but has also garnered widespread recognition, with their next-generation video technology protecting over 75 million residents. As the private sector thrives on cutting-edge frameworks and technologies, Keshav is bridging the gap, ensuring that the most crucial aspect of our day-to-day lives—public safety—embraces the future with the same vigor and innovation. 

The practice of product management, which is the art and science of leading a cross-functional team of designers, engineers and GTM professionals to ideate, engineer and deliver a valuable technology platform, has been growing by leaps and bounds in the private sector. Numerous new frameworks for innovation management and product development have emerged, enabling the development of next-generation technology platforms tailored to both consumers and businesses. These frameworks, such as Product-Led Growth and Outcome-Based Innovation have played a crucial role in accelerating companies' progress towards achieving product-market fit and unicorn status. Cutting-edge technologies like microservices for scalable backend architectures, Open APIs for seamless information exchange between systems, and voice-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities, along with cloud computing, have fueled significant breakthroughs in innovation within the private sector.

Despite these advancements, the adoption of these development frameworks and technologies has been lagging in the public safety sector, arguably the most critical domain governing our daily lives. Public safety encompasses the measures taken to prevent harm, protect people and property, and maintain order and security in public spaces or communities. It encompasses a wide range of activities, from law enforcement and emergency response to fire prevention, natural disaster management, and building codes.

Keshav Vasudevan is one of the leading innovators in product management who has been instrumental in infusing forward-thinking technology to aid in public safety operations. His work at Prepared911 working with a team of world-class engineers and designers has led to over 700 911 emergency centers in the United States adopting technology that would allow a dispatchers and emergency responders to seamlessly collect life-saving data like video, pictures and GPS information from everyday citizens during an emergency. Central to the adoption of any technology is product-market fit. Finding product-market fit can be incredibly difficult when building products in industries like public-safety due to the incredibly long nature of adoption due to government procurement cycles. This is where Keshav’s unique approach to identifying product -market fit comes in through the use of quantitative data and quantitative input that comes from continuous discovery. 

Continuous customer discovery is a key concept in product management and one that Keshav is spearheading in the public safety and govtech space. Put simply, continuous customer discovery is the process of constantly learning about one’s target market, their end users’ experience with the company’s product, and having a deep awareness of almost every single pain point anf friction area a target market experience. Continuous discovery is about using this knowledge to test strategic hypotheses and inform the direction and delivery of your product. This means talking to customers, analyzing usage data, and staying on top of market trends and competitive pressures. By doing so, you can stay one step ahead of the curve, anticipate customer needs and preferences, and make sure that your product is always meeting the needs of your target market. 

It is this process that has helped Keshav take three products from idea to multi-million-dollar SaaS ventures in the B2B and B2G space, notably tools like SwaggerHub and LoadNinja.

Keshav emphasizes the trifecta of engineering, business, and creativity as pivotal to effective product management. His advice to fellow product managers includes staying hands-on with evolving technologies, mastering the art of influencing without authority through communication and data-driven trust building, and maintaining a relentless focus on problem-solving and outcomes.

Keshav’s work in APIs, SaaS technology management and software development has been cited by multiple leading researchers and authors, and his talks online on software development, technology and product innovation have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Keshav’s mission is to use technology for the betterment of his community, with an emphasis on more modern, growing developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. You can learn more about him at  www.keshinpoint.com.