We live in the Golden Age of Product Management.
Thanks to factors like digital transformation, fierce competition, and rising customer expectations, product management stands out as a fast-growing and high-impact field.
To get a head start on why 2024 is the age of Product Managers (the growing importance of AI), we asked ChatGPT to summarize it. Here’s what we got!
- Product managers will need to prioritize with a new rigor in 2024.
- Product managers will need to become proficient in using collaborative whiteboarding tools like Figma and Miro.
- Product managers will need to understand the practical limits and reality of AI in order to incorporate it into product visions and plans.
Pretty cool, right?
Let’s understand it with the help of an example,
In 1878, the telephone-a technology that would change the way we communicate forever- was introduced to the world. It took 80 years for the telephone to reach 100 million users.
A century later, the mobile phone was invented. In 20 years, it hit the same mark.
Fast-forward to the new millennium, and Facebook reaches 100 million users in less than five years. Instagram takes a little over two years. You get the point.
These days, new entrants can enter the market overnight and reach thousands of users and millions in revenue in months — not years or decades. And it’s up to modern organizations to keep up.
This is a time of extraordinary challenge and extraordinary opportunity. Straddling this divide between challenge and opportunity are Product Managers. Even before the pandemic hit, demand for Product Managers had been growing at a dramatic rate.
Now that more businesses are forced to make difficult changes and depend even more heavily on technology, this trend is only increasing.
Adoption of Technology Drives Demand for Product Managers
To understand why Product Managers are in such high demand now, we need to look at what was driving the need for these skills even before the age of Covid-19:
A) Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes, cultures, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is called “digital transformation.”
As Harvard Business Review puts it, “digital is not just a thing that you can buy and plug into the organization, digital transformation is an ongoing process of changing the way you do business.”
B) Fierce Competition & Rising Customer Expectations
Today’s hyper-competitive climate means that companies must gain a deep understanding of their customers and deliver sophisticated products that meet their needs. And they must do it fast.
If competitors offer superior features, a better user experience, or forge stronger relationships with their user community, you will not be able to depend on their loyalty.
So, staying on top of user needs, competitors, and the ever-shifting conditions of the market now falls on the plates of a growing army of product managers.
In a 2022 Survey, LinkedIn ranked Product Management as one of the most promising jobs of the year, with a 29% year-on-year growth in job openings.
Being a Product Manager is a Deeply Fulfilling and Rewarding Role
While it’s a myth that all Product Managers are former coders, it is true that many people transition into PM roles after successful years working in programming, engineering, design, or, indeed, Coding.
While these roles are well compensated and in high demand, many professionals eventually feel themselves craving something more. Many of those who transition to a product role are seeking:
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Ownership: Being a PM means you own the Product. You get the thrill and satisfaction of seeing something you are responsible for coming to life, all the way from idea to reality.
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Teamwork: Many technical roles such as coder or engineer are collaborative but also quite isolating. Some have spent years working alone on a laptop all day long for a role with more interaction and a greater “team” dynamic.
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Leadership: Being a Product Manager allows you to develop and apply leadership skills in a fast-paced, real-world environment, something that many career-driven professionals strive for.
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Exposure to other Skills: A Product Manager does not have to be an expert at every aspect of building and creating a product. But they need to at least have a solid grasp of the vocabulary and principles of areas like coding, design, marketing and finance.
As uncertainty becomes the new norm, firms will increasingly rely on those who are experts at managing change and putting new technology to use. Product managers have never been in greater demand.
So, it seems that product management is here to stay, and we at Accredian are excited to be on the front lines.
Welcome to the golden age!
If you are looking for a challenging and rewarding new career direction, then maybe you should consider a career in Product Management.
Check out our blog page to build your career in product management.
