3 Product Manager Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

A great product manager comes equipped with certain qualities that sets him or her apart from the rest. Be it strategic thinking, passion for product development and the ability to decode customer insights, product managers are always working at the sharp edge of development phase to bring out a successful product in the market.

A job that is often compared to wearing multiple hats at the same time, a product manager plays a very diverse role in his team. He interacts with developers and consumers alike. He is collaborative, decisive and data-driven.

Having a keen ability to switch between roles and prioritize the assigned tasks is a must to become a great product manager.

Many product managers opt for short term courses in business analytics, digital marketing and even big data training to effectively play this challenging role.

Let’s look at how the coming year is going to force product managers to equip with newer skillsets and become the next great product managers.

Agile and waterfall hybrid

Source: http://www.areusdev.com/what-should-you-choose-agile-or-waterfall/

While the concept itself is not new, blending of agile and waterfall tools is the need of the hour. A waterfall approach can end up in long product development cycles with a looming risk of not meeting the client’s expectation. An agile approach on the other hand is also not a one size fit all solution and can get messy with too many iterations. 

The hybrid technique blends the best of both methods offering tight integration and real-time collaboration to product managers.

Online certification courses in product management tools can help students gain an edge over competition in coming years.

Emotional intelligence

Source: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Leading-Emotional-Intelligence/124087-2.html

The ability of a product to provide emotional satisfaction and delight to the customers defines its long term success.

A product manager has to play a vital role starting from the discovery, delivery to marketing phase of a product. By motivating cross functional teams to collaborate and influencing stakeholders to take calculated risks, a product manager based on his emotional intelligence and understanding of customer pain points and expectation carves a path for successful product development.

Big data certification courses can help product managers to make fine tunings in their product based on consumer metrics and ensure sureshot results.

Using AI to streamline processes

Source: https://j2-solutions.com/artificial-intelligence-sells-pizza-matters/

Early AI adopters are betting their money on using AI to streamline customer facing processes like personalized service, automation of marketing activities and IT support.

Product managers must leverage AI for efficient demand management, supply chain optimization etc. to bring down idea to market costs.

Professional courses in fields related to AI is a good investment for product managers to gain relevant skills needed for the coming years.

Ever changing and evergreen.

Product management remains to be constantly evolving. This attribute also makes it an evergreen career choice. Upskilling to stay ahead of the curve through online certification courses is the key to success for aspiring managers.