The demand for product management talent has soared over the past several years. The role and scope of a product manager’s position has evolved to encompass business analysis and project management. Modern product managers are goal-driven, subject matter experts with excellent analytical and leadership skills. They are hyper focused on product-based growth that ultimately leads to sales growth. Organizations have recognized how critical product managers are in the success of their business.
Historically, product managers have moved fluidly across industries. However, organizations are no longer seeking PM talent with a breadth of knowledge – rather they’re targeting highly specialized PMs who can hit the ground running on day one.
Specifically, technical product management talent is highly desired and companies are paying a premium to harness their experience. Product managers who have the technical acumen, people skills, and analytical focus can support cross-functional teams that are ultimately successful.
In the last several months, and moving into the future, PM job titles will become narrower in scope. The general product manager title will continue to evolve into security product engineers, SaaS PMs, hardware product engineers, eCommerce PMs, or B2B /C2B PMs. Each job will have its own specialty to provide the ideal expertise to an organization. These PMs are highly competent in their field and highly compensated for their expertise.
This is truly the beginning of a new breed of product managers. They will join newly formed product engineering teams to build the next generation of systems. Within large organizations, external product management teams or consultants are slowly being replaced with internal teams of product engineers, developers, designers, and QA talent. Creating these tight-knit, in-house teams will allow products to go live faster and more successfully.
The present and the future are digital. Streaming, eCommerce, FinTech, Health Tech – these industries are evolving rapidly. The next class of modern product managers will need to match this progress to stay current and in-demand.
