Product Management in 2018 - Emerging Trends and Predictions

As 2017 draws to a close, product leaders are looking ahead to the trends that will shape product management in the coming year. The discipline continues to evolve rapidly, influenced by technological advances, changing customer expectations, and new methodologies. This article explores the key trends that will define product management in 2018 and how forward-thinking product leaders are preparing for these shifts.

The Evolving Role of the Product Manager

The product management role continues to transform:

1. From Feature Factories to Outcome-Driven Organizations

The focus is shifting from output to outcomes:

• Outcome-Based Roadmaps: Organizing around customer and business outcomes rather than feature lists
• Success Metrics Evolution: Moving beyond usage metrics to impact metrics
• Experimentation Culture: Testing hypotheses rather than simply shipping features

This shift requires product managers to develop stronger analytical skills and business acumen.

2. The Rise of the Product Operations Function

As product teams scale, a new function is emerging:

• Process Standardization: Creating consistent approaches across product teams
• Tool Management: Overseeing the product tech stack
• Knowledge Management: Capturing and sharing product insights
• Cross-Team Coordination: Facilitating alignment across multiple product teams

Companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify are establishing dedicated product operations roles to support their growing product organizations.

3. Specialized Product Management Roles

The generalist product manager role is fragmenting into specialized functions:

• Technical Product Managers: Focusing on developer platforms and infrastructure
• Growth Product Managers: Specializing in acquisition, activation, and retention
• AI Product Managers: Managing machine learning products and features
• Platform Product Managers: Overseeing product ecosystems and APIs

This specialization reflects the increasing complexity of product development and the need for deeper expertise in specific domains.

Technology Trends Reshaping Product Management

Several technological shifts are influencing how products are built and managed:

1. AI-Powered Products Go Mainstream

Artificial intelligence is moving from experimental to essential:

• Embedded AI Features: Intelligence as a standard component rather than a standalone capability
• Personalization at Scale: Tailoring experiences to individual users automatically
• Predictive Capabilities: Anticipating user needs before they're expressed
• Conversational Interfaces: Voice and chat becoming primary interaction modes

Product managers need new skills to effectively specify, measure, and evolve these capabilities.

2. The Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrency

Distributed ledger technology finding product applications:

• Digital Identity: Self-sovereign identity management
• Supply Chain Transparency: Tracking provenance and authenticity
• Smart Contracts: Automating complex multi-party agreements
• Tokenization: Creating new business models through digital assets

While still emerging, these applications will require product managers to understand new technical concepts and business models.

3. Augmented Reality Enters the Product Toolkit

AR moving beyond gaming to practical applications:

• Retail Visualization: "Try before you buy" for furniture, cosmetics, and apparel
• Industrial Maintenance: Guided repair and maintenance procedures
• Navigation and Wayfinding: Enhanced location-based services
• Education and Training: Interactive learning experiences

Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore are democratizing AR development, making it accessible to mainstream product teams.

Methodological Shifts in Product Development

Product development approaches continue to evolve:

1. Continuous Discovery Becomes Standard Practice

Moving from periodic to ongoing customer research:

• Dedicated Discovery Teams: Specialized teams focused on problem exploration
• Research Operations: Systematizing user research across the organization
• Customer Councils: Maintaining ongoing relationships with representative users
• Insight Repositories: Centralizing and democratizing customer knowledge

Teresa Torres' continuous discovery framework is gaining widespread adoption as teams seek to maintain constant customer connection.

2. Design Systems Mature

Systematizing design to improve consistency and efficiency:

• Component Libraries: Reusable UI elements with defined behaviors
• Design Tokens: Systematic management of visual attributes
• Pattern Documentation: Capturing interaction models and best practices
• Cross-Platform Consistency: Unified experiences across web, mobile, and other touchpoints

These systems are changing how product and design teams collaborate, with product managers focusing more on problems and less on UI details.

3. Product Analytics Evolve

Moving beyond basic usage metrics:

• Product Success Metrics: Connecting product usage to business outcomes
• Behavioral Cohort Analysis: Understanding patterns across user segments
• Predictive Analytics: Forecasting user behavior and product performance
• Causal Analysis: Determining which features actually drive desired outcomes

Tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Pendo are becoming central to product decision-making.

Organizational Trends Affecting Product Teams

How companies structure and operate product functions is changing:

1. Remote-First Product Development

Distributed product teams becoming the norm rather than the exception:

• Asynchronous Communication: Reducing dependence on real-time meetings
• Documentation Culture: Capturing decisions and context explicitly
• Collaboration Tools: Specialized platforms for remote product development
• Global Talent Access: Hiring the best regardless of location

The pandemic-accelerated shift to remote work is becoming a permanent feature of product organizations.

2. Product Operations as a Discipline

Formalizing the operational aspects of product management:

• Workflow Standardization: Creating consistent processes across teams
• Tool Stack Management: Overseeing the product technology ecosystem
• Metrics Governance: Ensuring consistent measurement approaches
• Knowledge Management: Capturing and sharing product insights

This emerging function helps product organizations scale effectively while maintaining quality and consistency.

3. Cross-Functional Product Squads

Breaking down traditional functional silos:

• Outcome-Oriented Teams: Organizing around customer and business outcomes
• End-to-End Ownership: Teams responsible for full customer journeys
• Autonomous Decision-Making: Pushing decisions to the team level
• Shared Success Metrics: Aligning incentives across functions

Spotify's squad model continues to influence how companies structure product development.

Skills for the 2018 Product Manager

Product managers need to develop new capabilities:

1. Data Literacy and Quantitative Skills

Making sense of increasingly complex data:

• Experimental Design: Creating valid tests to evaluate hypotheses
• Statistical Analysis: Drawing correct conclusions from data
• Data Visualization: Communicating insights effectively
• Metrics Definition: Creating meaningful measures of success

These skills enable product managers to make evidence-based decisions and build credibility with stakeholders.

2. Strategic Thinking in Uncertain Environments

Navigating ambiguity and rapid change:

• Scenario Planning: Preparing for multiple possible futures
• Options Thinking: Creating flexibility in product strategies
• First Principles Reasoning: Solving problems from fundamental truths
• Systems Thinking: Understanding complex interactions and dependencies

These capabilities help product managers make good decisions despite incomplete information.

3. Ethical Product Management

Considering broader implications of product decisions:

• Privacy by Design: Building data protection into products from the start
• Algorithmic Fairness: Ensuring AI systems don't perpetuate biases
• Attention Ethics: Respecting users' cognitive resources
• Environmental Impact: Considering sustainability in product decisions

As technology's influence grows, product managers must take responsibility for these broader impacts.

Case Studies: Product Management Evolution in Action

Several organizations exemplify the evolving approach to product management:

Airbnb: The Outcome-Driven Organization

Airbnb's approach to product development:

• Organizing teams around customer and business outcomes rather than features
• Using a "feedback river" that aggregates insights from multiple sources
• Implementing a dedicated product operations function
• Developing specialized roles for growth, trust, and platform product management

This approach has enabled Airbnb to maintain innovation while scaling their product organization.

Spotify: Scaling Through Autonomy

Spotify's model for product development at scale:

• Autonomous squads organized around specific customer missions
• Tribes grouping related squads into product areas
• Chapters connecting functional specialists across squads
• Guilds sharing knowledge and practices organization-wide

This structure balances team autonomy with organizational alignment, enabling rapid innovation despite Spotify's size.

Looking Ahead: Preparing for 2018

For product leaders planning for the coming year, several priorities emerge:

1. Invest in Continuous Discovery: Build the capabilities for ongoing customer research
2. Develop AI Literacy: Ensure product teams understand machine learning fundamentals
3. Shift to Outcome-Based Planning: Move roadmaps from feature lists to customer outcomes
4. Build Remote Collaboration Capabilities: Optimize for distributed product development
5. Establish Product Operations: Create the foundation for scaling product management

Conclusion: The Evolving Product Management Landscape

As we enter 2018, product management continues its evolution from a tactical role to a strategic discipline. The most successful product leaders will be those who can balance technological innovation with customer empathy, data-driven decision making with strategic thinking, and execution speed with ethical responsibility.

The trends outlined in this article represent both challenges and opportunities. By developing the right skills, implementing appropriate methodologies, and creating supportive organizational structures, product teams can navigate these changes successfully and deliver exceptional value to both customers and businesses.

The coming year promises to be one of significant transformation for product management—those who anticipate and adapt to these shifts will be best positioned to lead their products and organizations to success in 2018 and beyond.

This article was written by Nguyen Tuan Si, a product management specialist with experience leading product teams across various industries and organization types.