The field of product development and product management is always changing, and the next few years are shaping up to be an exciting time for both these fields.
As the industry grows, companies need insight into what will happen next. To prepare you for this changing landscape, we have compiled a list of 6 trends that will shape product management this year.
While attempting to foresee the future is always difficult — especially now — we believe the following six trends will be significant for product management in 2022:
1. The Rise of Design Thinking
Design thinking is another trend that will be on the rise in 2022. This approach focuses on understanding the user and their needs. With design thinking, companies can create products that are functional but also appealing to users. This approach will become famous as customers not only look for products that are functional but aesthetically pleasing.
2. Increase in MVPs
This year, companies will be looking to release new features faster than ever before, and the result of this is an increase in MVPs (minimum viable products).
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Why? Because the rise of agile development practices means that companies need to make sure they can get products out there as fast as possible — and an MVP is the best way to do this.
An MVP is a version of your product that delivers just enough value for users to engage with it. It’s a fantastic way to release products and features faster with less waste. By releasing an MVP, you can also get feedback from users early and often, which will help to improve the product.
3. A Rise in Agile Development Practices
In 2022, the product management industry will face a rise in agile development practices. The reason is that companies will need to ensure a more seamless experience for their customers.
For example, many companies are shifting from waterfall development cycles that take months or even years before releasing a product to an agile process that takes weeks or days, allowing the company to build things quickly and get customer feedback sooner.
4. The Use of AI-driven Customer Engagement
AI-driven customer engagement remains a vital part of product management. In 2022, we can expect to see more companies using this technology to create a more personalized experience for their customers.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning will be integrated into more products and services to help companies manage their operations and understand what people want. With the help of artificial intelligence, companies will be able to understand better how customers interact with their products.
This understanding will allow for more accurate customer segmentation and a higher level of personalization. For instance, if a customer interacts with a brand mostly to know how the product works, you can automatically provide product demo videos or customer onboarding videos.
5. The Increasing Importance of Data
Data is more critical than ever before, and in 2022, it will be even more crucial for product managers. As products become more complex, accurate and timely data becomes more excellent.
Product managers need to understand how their product is used and what the data tells them to create successful products. This trend also increases the need for product managers skilled in data analysis.
6. The Increase in PMs with Cross-Functional Skills
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As companies become increasingly complex, it will be necessary for the new generation of product managers to have skills.
In 2022, we can expect an increase of generalists who can work across teams and functions from engineering and design to marketing and operations. This product manager can see the big picture and understand how all the different parts of a company work together. This trend will be necessary as companies move towards more agile working methods.
Conclusion
Product Managers nowadays wear many hats and need to possess broad knowledge of many different topics. However, with the role evolving and the future changing before our eyes, we foresee an increase in specialization of the function, especially in larger companies. For smaller organizations, the role will continue to be “generalist,” with the increasing number of Product Development and Product Management courses and training programs focusing on a cross-disciplinary approach to proving it.
The Product Manager of the future will be an analytics specialist, carefully tracking product metrics to identify opportunities, improving poor-performing features, and facilitating rapid development of innovative products. Some trends that started recently will prevail in 2022 and beyond. Data-driven decision-making will stay in the top three skills that Product Managers must-have.
Whether you need a Product Owner for product discovery or to coordinate development efforts, our experts cover the entire scope of agile product development. Contact us!
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