2019 Product Management Trends

The challenge of achieving product-market fit is what keeps most product managers up at night. And this time every year, product management professionals are putting yearly strategies together and seeking out resources to ensure their approach is on-trend.

Product managers are tasked with tracking market changes and competition to ensure market fit and product evolution are competitive, and then delivering feedback based on learnings to the rest of the product stakeholders—but they don’t have to do it alone. This post shares tips product professionals at any size company can take in order to get ahead of market trends.

The Challenges of Competition, Fragmentation, and Market Fit

When your competition seems to jump ahead of you, it can be easy to get discouraged. Instead, try to use your frustration as fuel to take a step back and realign your goals and mission. Be flexible to change, and be willing to reorder priorities and projects based on what it will take to get ahead in the market. Above all, remember that it’s not just about the competition; shifting priorities can help you better deliver a product your customers will love.

Fragmented markets occur when no one company is influential enough to move the market in a new direction, and typically affects small to midsize companies. It may seem helpless, but you can actually leverage a fragmented market to your advantage within your product if you have the right mindset. If you’re battling market fragmentation, use it as an opportunity to differentiate your company and product, or to take advantage of the low barrier to entry customers will have with your brand. Your marketing expenses will typically be less than they might be in a more competitive market, so work with your marketing team to come up with some great campaigns highlighting the uniqueness of your mobile product.

Once you hit market fit, everything generally becomes easier: expanding product usage, shortening your sales cycle, boosting your prices, etc. But while you’re waiting to hit market fit, learn as much as you can about what would make your product better from your customers. This is the time to dig into churn and understand why people are leaving, and what might have kept them around and paying for your product. Ask questions, gather feedback, and re-prioritize your product roadmap based on what you learn.

How to Keep Up

Being an expert in your product’s market doesn’t happen overnight. Rather, it’s a constant evolution of learning new information and applying it to your strategy.

Thankfully, continuous connectivity has fostered a community of product leaders keen on sharing knowledge and helping others. To step up your game and become a market expert, we recommend getting into the habit of the following practices.

1. Connect with the right people on Twitter

Creating a Twitter list of world-class product leaders is like having your own bench of mentors to turn to when hard questions come up. If you’re in product and aren’t following the folks below, you’re missing out on some incredible (free!) knowledge they share regularly.

Adam Kazwell (@kaz)
Ellen Chisa (@ellenchisa)
Greg Mushen (@gregmushen)
Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk)
Ian McAllister (@ianmcall)
Janna Bastow (@simplybastow)
Jeff Lash (@jefflash)
Josh Elman (@joshelman)
Julie Zhuo (@joulee)
Ken Norton (@kennethn)
Matt Anderson (@MattAndersonUT)
Michelle Harper (@mlharper)
Mina Radhakrishnan (@minarad)
Nils Davis (@nilsie)
Nir Eyal (@nireyal)
Paul Adams (@Padday)
Paul Jackson (@pivotservices)
Rich Mironov (@RichMironov)
Roger L. Cauvin (@rcauvin)
Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover)
Satya Patel (@satyap)
Sean Rose (@seanrose)
Shardul Mehta (@shardulmehta)
Shiva Rajaraman (@shivar)
Teresa Torres (@ttorres)

2. Immerse yourself in the right content

Continued learning is all about looking in the right place. Below are a handful of our favorite blogs, news outlets, newsletters, and podcasts all centered around technology and product management.

Blogs:
280 Group
Aha!
App Annie Insights
Being Apptentive
Citrix
Grow.co
InVision
Intercom
Marketing Land
Mobile Leaders Alliance
Mind the Product
Mobile Marketer
Mobile Marketing Association
SPM Intersections
The Product Guy
TUNE

News:
9 to 5 Mac
Geekwire
Recode
TechCrunch
The Verge
Venture Beat

Newsletters:
Being Apptentive
Bringing the Donuts
Think with Google

Podcasts:
Exponent
How I Built This
Product People
Product Hunt
This is Product Management

3. Make real-life connections at conferences

Although our work is primarily digital, something special happens when we move our connections offline and into the real world. Here are a few of our favorite conferences where you can connect with fellow product leaders.

Casual connect
CES
Customer Love Summit
Delight UX/Product Conference
Google I/O
WWDC
Mind the Product
Mobile Future Forward
Mobile Ventures Summit
Mobile World Congress
Mobile Growth Summit
Open Mobile Media Summit
Product Management and Innovation
ProductCamp
ProductTank Meetup Series

In a digital world that is constantly changing, it is critical that product leaders are current about ideas and innovations in the field. Engaging with their peers and the larger community gives product leaders a fresh perspective which is sometimes just what you need to spark off a new idea. Not to mention, it is critical to personal growth and skills enhancement.

Success doesn’t happen overnight. Asking yourself hard questions may feel uncomfortable at first, but it’s the best way to go deep into learning more about yourself to improve your future in product. The best product leaders are the ones who know their products inside and out, and knowing yourself at the same level is no different.

The post 2019 Product Management Trends appeared first on Apptentive.