Product management has always been a job where you “fall” into the role by learning in the field and watching others perform. Even with all the training and coaching, it has been identified that the top factors driving product or service development superiority from start to finish and better team performance are the combinations of both knowledge and technicalities.
The role of product managers and engineers-designers in the past couple of years has been growing as businesses are becoming more and more digital. So what are the top characteristics framing their work and shaping product management?
Human-Machine Collaboration
The collaboration of artificial and human intelligence has the power to make great changes in so many industries, from medical, to environmental, and creative; and since up-and-coming designers and engineers always see “potential” in any collaboration or innovation, which means there will be plenty of room for growth in the future of machine learning and the world of product creation and management.
Managers and engineers are joining forces to develop and optimize their relationship with machines and allowing the strengths of both sides to complement one another and not necessarily complete. So what does this mean for product management? Machines are still dependent on people to decide their use and to train them and product managers will be the ones deciding which questions to ask and how to regulate the use of new technologies with respect to human rights and privacy.
Demand Fluctuation
It begins with marketers studying consumer behavior to find the popularity of an existing product or the potential of a new one. Changes in consumers’ preferences, from retail to mobile apps are hard to keep up with but not impossible to predict, even if for a short period of time. By default, any business will prioritize a product that’s in demand; however, an engineer can foresee what could a consumer needs by simply trying to answer one big question: what are we trying to solve?
In addition, apart from consumer behavior, demand is also affected by many factors: seasonal effect, non-availability of supplies, economic, socio-political, health, or environmental issues, so in order to meet the changing demand of certain products or services, creative technologies and marketers have to adjust their product mix and be flexible in a way that allows them to be creative and innovative, without risking profitability.
It’s All About Growth
We found that product designers, managers, and particularly creative technologists, value growth above all else. Whether it’s product/project growth or their own personal development, all their efforts should end up opening a new door of opportunities and allowing more room for improvement. This is why, one of the key factors that are shaping product management and turning it from zero to hero is creating a culture of growth within a company or a business, to help it adapt to the fast-growing marketing and digital market of 2022.
In fact, this effort can’t be implemented without cross-departmental support through training, mentoring models, and coaching as tools to build up managers’ and engineers-designers skill set. This leads us to another extension of the whole growth concept: investing in certifications is a win-win for the business, as it will benefit from a more educated, informed, and experienced workforce and ultimately ensure higher human resources retention rates.
The future, both for products and professionals, is bright, but the industry requires action today to equip talented professionals with the right tools to be ready to use cutting-edge technologies and develop the knowledge to invent new products and uses.
ESiLV’s Creative Technology programme is a cross-disciplinary master’s in engineering that is keen on implementing integrative and systemic solutions for various aspects of software or products creation.
Engineer-designers that graduate with this degree are able to lead teams across a company’s research and development, as well as smoothly communicate and work with marketing and industrial production departments. Their options are endless, as they may also produce intellectual contributions such as patents or scientific publications, develop disruptive technologies and integrate them into new visions of society or a new market. After completing their master’s, ESiLV graduates would already have a sizeable project portfolio bolstered by various articles, scientific papers, and, sometimes, patents.
Remain eager for knowledge, curious to create, and hungry for the next innovation!