As we enter a new year, it’s always important to track new product trends and see how to build better teams, roadmaps, and more!
As we jump back into the swing of things for a new year (and Q1), it’s important to remember that keeping up with new trends, practices, innovations, and more is part of the job with Tech + Product.
As someone who has been in Product, CX, and Startups Advising, I wanted to share some of my predictions on what kind of trends are coming to Product Management/Product Ownership in 2022!
1. Product + AI
Probably common sense in some ways, but also based on Product People I’ve been talking to, AI will become more deeply embedded not in just the tools that are being used, but platforms that Product Owner/Manager are actually building themselves.
In a study done by Datamation, it is predicted that: The global artificial intelligence (AI) software market is predicted to total $62.5 billion in 2022, a 21.3% year-over-year increase.
With these possibilities and the potential of growth with AI software, Product Managers may seek to implement more Machine Learning + Deep Learning into their products to come up against their competitors.
2. New Browser-Based PM Tools Take Flight
As with any new year, new software becomes the new standard in the world of Product. This year, I’m predicting that we’ll see some powerful browser-based tools will start to take hold of the Product world as resources that can help better manage teams, data, and more.
One of the most popular Platform/Product Discovery tools, ProductHunt, has recently released it’s nominees for the upcoming “Golden Kitty Awards” which is given to different up-and-coming products across different disciplines (technically made to go over 2021, but I do think there’s a ton of products that will become big players in 2022). I’d say at this juncture, it would be great to check out some of the products in the “Productivity, Work from Anywhere, SaaS” to name a few categories with plenty of new faces that could be heavily utilized to optimize for current & future product-led startups.
3. Product Enters Web3
If you haven’t been on Twitter lately, you may have not seen some of the recent trends in Web3, but rest assured, it’s coming at the entire Tech industry fast.
With these new Web3 & Crypto platforms, we’re going to see the need to scale fast with the potential adoption trajectory that is already happening, which means more product talent will be needed at the forefront.
In another awesome 2022 Trends article from Forbes, you can see some of the possibilities with Web3 and what the future of the creator economy might bring. With this in mind, Web3-focused products will need more than just engineers, but also product designers, managers, marketers, and more to help scale these efforts to the masses.
Not only is this an exciting space to work in, but this is also an awesome opportunity to be an early team member focusing on the product at several of these companies building the future, which are early to the industry as well.
4. Product + Community
It’s important to mention that in 2020 and 2021, the idea of Community Management and building communities around products became a larger trend and continues to grow.
Everything from marketing to products that grow an open-source following for their resources means that there are a lot of opportunities for Product People to get involved.
Everything from attending webinars and listening to feedback, or watching a product’s public Discord/Slack Group, the opportunity for a product person to learn more about their customers + their behaviors gets only accelerated with the opportunities brought with the community.
—
And there you have it! These are just some of the top trends that Product Leaders at Startups need to think about – and I’ll be working to expand on a few of those topics for different use cases, startup stages, and more in the near future here at FoundersPress!
