What Product Managers Are Focused On

Now more than ever, PMs at every level bring value to their product and beyond. The deep understanding PMs have of their customer base helps drive decisions across their organizations, which means they often look outside of their field to help drive strategy.
So what are the best in product management thinking about in 2018? We had the pleasure of interviewing seven expert PMs from Alaska Airlines, Gap, SiriusXM, Care.com, TUNE, and Alkami Technology to find out.
We asked our interviewees, “What are you looking ahead to in 2018?” Check out what they’re excited about, working on, and looking ahead to this year in their answers below.
Francis Brown“As a product group that focuses on the internal customer, we’re looking forward to how the mobile tools will revolutionize how we do things in the airline. We’re in the process of building the apps now, but it can lead us to a lot of interesting use cases with beacon technology, chat communication, and AI. It’s really about making the job easier for airline employees.”
Francis Brown from Alaska Airlines
Lauren Lee“I’m most excited about two tech trends. First, I think we’re going to start to see VR and AR cross the chasm in 2018. There was a ton of hype around these technologies in 2016, then 2017 was relatively quiet, and in 2018, I think we’ll see a lot more apps adopt these technologies as they figure out how to leverage them in a way that drives business. The other trend that is really taking off is voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home. They’re still in infancy stages now in terms of the skills that they have, but I see them being incredibly useful as their functionality expands. I’d love to see how both VR/AR and voice assistants can be used to assist seniors and people with disabilities access technologies and improve their quality of life.”
Lauren Lee from Care.com
Patrick Haig“I’m personally looking to develop as a director and what that means in terms of helping clarify our product strategy, keeping it clear for our teams, and reinforcing it constantly. And, naturally, trying to take stock of any missteps along the way and what I can learn from them. :)”
Patrick Haig from TUNE
Tom Padula“For my current project at SiriusXM, I’m really excited to wow our customers with some great new features and functionality we are planning to launch this year. Our mobile products have come a long way recently, and we’re about to make even bigger strides into current and future technology in 2018. On a personal note, I can’t wait for more and more things in my house to become automated. I’m already on board with connected thermostats, cameras, sound systems, and lighting controls. I can’t wait until I can walk into a room of my house and the technology will know exactly what I want to do there.”
Ethan HollinsheadTom Padula from SiriusXM
“I’m working with a great team at Strava that has largely remained together for the last few years. We’ve also grown a bit recently and the team is really hitting its stride. We’ve got an ambitious roadmap for 2018 and I’m excited to work with this team on implementing it.”
Ethan Hollinshead from Strava
Andrew Wang“I’m looking forward to new personal challenges, including a shift in my role to store technologies. I’m also looking forward to emerging technologies. AI seems to be really popular right now, and I can’t wait to see all the different applications. On a personal note, I recently proposed to my girlfriend, so I’m looking forward to getting married in 2018!”
Andrew Wang from Gap
“I’m personally interested to see what gains the voice systems such as Google Home and Alexa make in the market. Will this just be a toy in the home, or will we start to see a real focus on functionality available to users in their homes with voice assistants?”
Jason Pace from Alkami Technology
Looking for more product management tips?
Product management has moved front and center in many business strategies, and will continue to expand its reach in the years to come. We hope these insights from our expert product managers get you thinking about what’s next for you and your company’s product roadmap.
Grab your free copy of 6 Lessons from Expert Product Managers to hear more from the expert PMs featured above, and let some of the best brands in the product world help shape your 2018 strategy.