In January every year, experts espouse macro-trend predictions, while the rest of us set our micro-goals. Why not take advantage of this intersection and craft your goals to capitalize on trends currently building momentum?
Whether you work in tech or use tech to work (that’s everyone!), keep an eye on startup trends—they drive the world. And an imperative if you’re mid- or late-career: Addressing these trends proactively can mean the difference between thriving or becoming irrelevant. How to do this? I have some thoughts.
Trend: Web3 will snowball in 2022
My Twitter timeline is littered with people announcing they are leaving more traditional software companies for Web3 work, and they’re extremely excited about this. Granted, Web3 enthusiasm seems to be dominated by GenZ, but 2022 will no doubt be the year it gathers enough critical mass to go more mainstream. Boomers and Gen Xers don’t necessarily need to make similar career jumps, but at a minimum, you need to be able to hold your own in a conversation about Web3.
Quick intro: This article by Rex Woodbury is a very relatable introduction to all that Web3 includes.
Easy entry: Open a Coinbase account and buy a small amount of crypto—it’s simple! Web3 is more than crypto, but this will give you some skin in the game and pique your curiosity to learn more.
Trend: The metaverse will take shape
Sure, we hate to let the company formerly known as Facebook (now called Meta) dominate the narrative, but the metaverse promises to gain major traction this year. Apple recently announced it will offer a new VR headset in 2022. Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 and Sony’s Playstation VR are already in the market, along with a few other players. Even conservative businesses will begin experimenting with VR meetings. At a holiday gathering I attended, a Millennial relative mentioned her team at consulting firm Accenture was holding some meetings via Meta’s Horizon Workrooms. And expect conferences and exhibitions to increasingly use VR to enhance attendee experience, via companies like Spatial.
Quick intro: Here’s a simple and comprehensive explainer on what the metaverse encompasses.
Easy entry: Santa brought our family an Oculus Quest 2 this year, and it’s a fun and fairly affordable way to embrace the metaverse.
Trend: No-code applications continue to speed up development
In the ‘80s I began to use a software program called Pagemaker to lay out a magazine. Instead of a designer literally cutting and pasting galleys into a layout, so a typesetter could set the cold type, I was able to use a graphical interface to move text around via software and create a digital version of the magazine that could skip cold type and be printed directly from a file. This was groundbreaking, and it’s where we’re at with no-code applications. Using a graphical interface, non-developers can create digital products and developers can create them faster than hand-coding. This allows early-stage startups to develop product prototypes without major developer investment. Just as importantly, it allows non-technical employees to create more sophisticated work—websites, data visualizations, automations, graphics, etc.—without having to code.
Quick entry: Watch this nine-minute video for an overview of what no-code is, with examples shown at the end.
Easy entry: Use a free no-code application to enhance work you’re already doing. For example, use Zapier to link two or more tasks you do by hand to automate them. (I set up an automation to notify me with an email whenever I receive a new subscriber in Mailchimp.) Set up a dashboard in Notion. (I did—here’s a video I watched to learn how.) Put a spreadsheet in Airtable and see how you can enhance it—tie the data to more data (it’s a relational database), toggle to a calendar, etc. Once you feel comfortable with the basics, explore how you can take it to the next level.
Trend: Hybrid WFH will become institutionalized
Work from home is not going away, a trend that seems to have been solidified with Omicron. Most experts agree that most companies will institutionalize some combination of in-person and at-home work, most commonly requiring three days a week in the office. Hybrid can be tricky, though, for managers. So now is the time to beef up your management-from-afar skills.
Quick intro: This HBR article characterizes five imperatives for managers of hybrid teams.
Easy entry: Take a short but live course on converting your workforce to hybrid like this, or go full-in with a certification course like Cornell’s “Leading Remote Teams.”
Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels