Product Management in 2024: Navigating Change and Excelling in Your Career

As we enter 2024, the landscape of product management is poised for a transformative shift, with significant implications for current Product Managers.

As we approach 2024, the landscape of product management is poised for significant change.

With rising inflation and the looming threat of a recession, the demand for exceptionally skilled Product Managers (PMs) is now more than ever.

However, it’s crucial to note that overall demand in the field may see a decline. A smaller number of Product managers will be hired, and many might face uncertainty.

This trend is possibly going to sweep through 2024. Hiring managers will be looking for someone more skill-focused and able to solve problems.

The Changing Tide of the Past:

The COVID-19 pandemic was a period of introspection and career exploration for many.

During this time, product management emerged as a popular career choice, coinciding with a surge in hiring.

This shift led companies to explore beyond traditional MBA graduates for PM roles, focusing instead on candidates who demonstrated exceptional performance in PM interviews.

This led to a great increase in the supply of PMs.

Companies are meant to have a PM to Dev ratio of 1:10, i.e. for every 1 PM we have 10 developers. But if you would see it in your organization, that might not be the case.

Currently, the market has more PMs than required. So the companies will start with the filtration process and just look out for the top PMs.

The Current Challenge:

With the potential recession and increasing layoffs, the importance of being among the top 1% of product managers has never been more critical.

But what does it take to achieve this distinction?

How can someone become the top 1% of the PMs?

Below are the 10 points that product experts shared, and believe can help the new and rookie PMs to not only survive but also thrive as product managers.

10 Key Strategies for Aspiring Top-Tier Product Managers:

Cultivate a Learning Mindset:

This should be a no-brainer. Most product mentors/guides/influencers all preach this.

Embrace continuous learning to stay ahead in the ever-evolving field of product management.

However, the learning should be subjective. Learn what would make you better at your role.

If you are working on building a search feature or a search product it is imminent you start researching the same.

Product Managers should be knowledgable enough to provide valuable inputs during technical discussions. When engineering says we would like to use tokenization for the search. PM should be able to second that with reason or question it by proposing a better alternative.

It never caused any harm on asking Why? or Why not?

Understand AI:

With AI transforming industries, understanding its applications and implications is essential.

In one of our earlier AI for PM articles, we mentioned how AI can help shift the scale of average PM to an exceptional PM.

AI is here to stay, so it’s better to be skilled in this new technology.

In future, every company will be looking for PMs who are well-versed in AI terminologies and have in some capacity worked with LLMs.

Learn UX:

A foundational knowledge of user experience is crucial for making informed product decisions.

UX is one of the fundamental skill for Product managers to be skilled at.

UX knowledge indicates that you understand your users have empathy for your users.

Document Product Experiences:

Writing about your experiences can clarify your thoughts and demonstrate your expertise.

The best way is to blog about what problem you faced and how you tackled it in your organisation.

This is the best way of building influence and growing as a Product manager.

Build Your Brand:

Now more than ever you need to establish yourself as a thought leader in the product management community.

Recruiters are hunting candidates from Twitter and Linkedin. Having a decent presence and interactions on these social media platforms can act as a bonus.

PMs need to become more active on these platforms and share original thoughts and ideas. That does not mean reposting the quote or content shared by PM influencers.

Share your own experience with the product. Do product teardown. Build your product in public using a no-code tool.

This will help you not only in brand building but also in getting noticed by headhunters.

Always Be Adaptable:

Be prepared for industry changes and pivot your skills accordingly.

New technologies can emerge at any time and often PMs will be the first asked to get the one-pager ready of what we can do with the new trendy technology.

PMs need to be updated about new trends and products that are getting popular online.

So how to stay updated?

Follow our blog! 😛

Not only this blog, but the countless blogs that right about new trends and products.

There are few of UX, UI, Product Blogs, newsletter that have helped Product managers land jobs in Google, Meta, Netflix etc. If you want us to write a blog about them, comment below showing interest.

Expand Your Network:

Connect with other professionals to learn about the problems they are solving.

Share insights with other fellow PMs.

This will open up new opportunities for you.

Don’t just network with PMs. Network with engineers, testers, designers, business leaders, etc.

Building these connections is important since they will be the ones who can connect you with the right people when required.

Embrace Unlearning and Relearning:

Challenge your existing knowledge and be open to new concepts and methodologies.

If you have built a road using tarmac that doesn’t mean it cannot be built using cement or recycled plastic.

Before jumping to conclusions, about how to solve a problem, talk to engineers and other product managers about the problem and the solution.

Sometimes a different perspective can be an eye-opener.

Become tech-oriented:

Companies are now looking for Product managers who have a technical background.

However, this might not be true in all cases. But having a technical background does give you an added advantage.

Having a technical background ensures that you will be able to have conversations with the tech team more comfortably and can participate in more technical discussions.

Specialisation:

The last and the most famous strategy that would help you in 2024 is specializing in a particular field of product management

Become a payments PM, search PM, recommendation PM. This expertise will bring down the number of opportunities, but will help you to stand out as an expert in the field.

However, I am against this idea, because I believe being a generalist is better than being a specialist.

Conclusion:

As the dynamics of product management evolve, so must we.

By embracing these strategies, you can position yourself as a top-tier product manager, ready to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024 and beyond.

Strategies are great when you know what might happen and exactly that happens.

But not for scenarios that you never thought of.

If the direction of the wind changes so should your strategy.

As we stand on the cusp of a new year, let us embrace this opportunity for a fresh start.

May the new year bring with it a horizon filled with innovation, growth, and success in all our endeavors in product management.