Wyze Employee Spotlight - Mike Sobaski

Hello everyone.:smiley:

This month’s Employee Spotlight is Mike Sobaski (@mike.s). He will also be the guest speaker for our next Team Wyze Live event, August 18th at 3pm PT on LinkedIn! With that being so far away, you can learn more about Mike’s role at Wyze by reading this Employee Spotlight:

Name: Mike Sobaski

Pronoun: He/Him/His

Team: Product Team

Role: Senior Director of Product Management

1. Why did you choose Wyze (Why Wyze)?

Coming to Wyze wasn’t an easy choice at first. It was 2018, I was working at Amazon and still pretty early in my career as a PM, but an old colleague reached out and said the company he had co-founded was really starting to take off and they needed product people. I think I actually told him no a few times, but eventually he convinced me to come in and talk with him and the CEO. That conversation was supposed to be an hour, but we ended up sitting there for about three hours talking about what the vision for Wyze was, how we could make technology more accessible, and how the entire smart home industry was ripe for disruption. It clicked in that moment and while I knew it would be incredibly hard, I believed there was a path for Wyze to become a major tech company. The founding team had the ambition, the beginnings of a plan, and the audacity to dream bigger than anything I’d imagined before.

Obviously I was hooked and pretty much decided on the spot to leave my job and join team Wyze.

2. What team are you on and what do they do?

I am a PM on the Product Team which is split in a few ways including between Platform and ‘Plugin’ PMs as well as PMs dedicated to working on services like Cam Plus. As ‘Plugin’ PMs we build the actual devices customers purchase while the platform team helps build the infrastructure that spans between devices. Within the team we are also split along product-lines and I help manage our non-camera devices.

3. How long have you been with Wyze and what do you do here?

I was lucky to join Wyze early, all the way back in June 2018 when we only had the v2 and Pan. As one of the earliest folks on the Product team I was tasked with helping turn us from a camera company to a smart home company. We wanted to grow our product lines and bring great technology to everyone by making it affordable, easy to use, and built in partnership with our users. I’ve been the primary PM for a number of products including Wyze Bulb White & Wyze Bulb Color, Wyze Plug, Wyze Sense v1 & v2, Wyze Light Strips, Wyze Thermostat, and Wyze Sprinkler Controller, and Wyze Lock. But in the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to lead an amazingly talented team of PMs who have taken these products and turned them into full categories with the addition of even more new products.

Beyond building new products for customers I also spend a lot of time looking at how we are building products and trying to help make us better. That means implementing new processes to control our project management, working cross functionally with our marketing and sales teams to communicate the value of our products, and even with operations and finance.

4.What’s your favorite thing about working at Wyze?

There is so much I love about working at Wyze it’s hard to pick just one. It really has been amazing to see our community and company grow over the years which is just a privilege to be a part of. I also have loved getting to work with so many different people and in so many different product categories. Most PMs spend their entire career doing one or two categories (or even just a few major products), but at Wyze you can touch so much if you’re interested and willing to take on the work.

But if I had to pick one thing that really stands out it has to be seeing my products out in the wild. There is something really special about seeing something you spent a year or more working on being used by friends, family, and even strangers. You see Wyze Cams everywhere, but the impact of our work really hit me recently when I noticed how many of my neighbors have Wyze Locks. I was just out walking my dog and then noticed house after house with Wyze Lock Keypad on their front door. These are people in my community who don’t know that their neighbor built this product, but are using it everyday. It’s just such a cool feeling to physically see the impact you’re having.

5. How have Wyze product(s) impacted your life?

My entire life is now filled with Wyze products. I mean that literally… I think I’ve got over 40 of them in my house and use them every single day. Like most Wyze customers I use my camera to keep an eye on my dog, Zoey, while I’m away, but I also live & die by the cordless and robot vacuum. As an owner of a black lab with gray floors I need to vacuum every day or the hair piles up.

I also use my Wyze Bulbs & Strips to set the optimal lighting around the house and have the occasional dance party. Overall having Wyze products in my home has made life easier and more fun.

Wyze is growing! If you’re interested in joining a team of innovators, tech enthusiasts, and all-around cool people, check out our opportunities here: Wyze Careers.

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Congrats @mike.s! I personally love the Wyze plug, one of the simpler products but does it’s job great! :slight_smile:

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Strikes me as a good man. :+1:

@mike.s, glad to put a face to the Senior Director of Product Management. As with you, I have most of the Wyze Products with the exception of only about 3 :slight_smile: . I really enjoy the Wyze Product and to finally put a face to somoene who contributes to what Wyze will be providing is great. Wyze is a great company, you made a great move. Glad you are part of the Team.

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I am glad you signed on to the vision and have been helping to make it a reality! The growth and progress have been exciting in the last couple of years!

I believe I saw you on an Instagram Live event and sometimes on Youtube events. :slight_smile:

Out of curiosity, is this also the same WyzeMichael we see logged into the Wyze Discord server and is also on Reddit?

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No, that is @MichaelD, he is the Community Manager over Reddit who does all those AMA’s you love!

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Thanks! Working on getting it right between the 2 different Michaels here. :slight_smile: I can definitely tell they are different people now that I look at pictures of them both at the same time:

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:+1:

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