Top 7 Digital Skills To Master The Future Of Work | How To Learn And Where To Go To Learn
Digital is reshaping the workforce of tomorrow and changing
the nature of jobs that need to be done. We all must anticipate and prepare for
this future of work in order to stay relevant and valuable.
And that starts by
acquiring the right skills. But which are going to be the most in-demand, most
valuable digital skills of the future? What should you invest your time in
learning? Let's find out! Here are seven of the top digital skills for the future
workforce. Plus, our team's favorite resources and favorite courses to help
you learn them.
Hey guys! My name is Taufiq and I work as the Head of
Digital here at Inspire Digital Home. Just a heads up, that you can download
all of the resources, books, and courses that we mention in this blog by
following the link in the description below. The top digital skill of the future
number
1. Artificial intelligence.
We
live in an increasingly artificially intelligent world, so leverage it before
it leverages you. Now that's not meant to sound all doom and gloom, but in a
world full of AI it's really important that we understand the tech. According
to this report from LinkedIn, AI skills are amongst the fastest-growing skills
on the platform with a 190% increase in AI skills on LinkedIn from 2015 to 2017.
The good news?
You don't need to deep dive into Python or become a hardcore
coder to empower yourself to leverage AI. So where should you go for your fix
of AI knowledge? I asked Growth Tribe's resident Data Chief, Bernardo, for his
tips, and this is what he recommends... On the book front: For an in-depth into
AI, check out Artificial Intelligence:
A Modern Approach. Want to know what AI
means for your business? Read Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of
Artificial Intelligence. And get started with machine learning with the 100
Page Machine Learning Book. Looking to take a course? For a non-technical intro, you could try Coursera's AI for Everyone.
2. UX Design.
Top digital skill number 2:
UX design. UX designers lay the highways and put up the signposts of our
digital world. Great UX design requires meticulous research into user personas,
user goals, and customer journey mapping.
This ensures products meet customer
needs in the most satisfying and enjoyable way. If a product has a great UX
design you probably won't even notice it. But you sure will if a product or program
feels cumbersome or confusing. And therefore, businesses are increasingly
recognizing the importance of great UX design.
Not just to the user experience
itself, but actually to its ability to improve brand equity and ultimately,
profitability. Therefore, there's a growing demand, and organizations are paying
well. So where should you go for learning and development? Well, for books,
there's the classic Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug about human-computer
interaction and web usability. I'd also highly recommend checking out Lean UX,
and of course,
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, who actually coined
the phrase "UX design". How about courses? One of my favorites is
from Conversion XL on Data-Driven UX. You could also check out Hack Design.
They have a great weekly email lesson and they also have a learning hub full of
short and concise readable lessons.
What about blogs and influencers?
Definitely go check out Invision's blog, Inside Design, There's also UX Planet.
I'd also recommend following Scott Belsky who's the Chief Product Officer at
Adobe. You could also check out the UX Collective, Paul Boag, the author of
User Experience Revolution, and Laura Klein the author of Build Better Products
and UX for Lean Startups.
3. Digital Marketing
Top digital skill number 3:
Digital Marketing. According to this report from McKinley, nearly 60% of
marketing hires will be digital and demand for digital marketing talent sits at
59%, while active supply sits at 19%. The most in-demand marketing skills of
the future are of course digital And mastering them can lead to an abundance of
career opportunities.
Why? These marketing skills capitalize on new digital
technologies To help sell products and build brands. All businesses crave this
expertise. However, digital marketing's domain is very broad and there's a ton
of specializations.
Think PPC, social media, search engine optimization, data
analysis, conversion rate optimization, marketing automation, I could go on.
I'm happy to make another video that looks at the specifics of digital
marketing skills. If you'd like to see that, leave a comment below. Just a
quick tip, if you want to be in the top 1% of digital marketing talent it's
important to become T-Shaped.
The T-Shaped Marketer is the ultimate
all-rounder. They possess a broad width of knowledge that's complemented by a deep level of understanding in several expert areas. You can find out all about
what it takes to become a T-Shaped Marketer by taking our T-shaped marketing
quiz over at the Growth Tribe blog. So then, looking to get started or level
up?
Here's my recommendation for some books. It's a classic and I think anyone
in marketing or sales should read it: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
I'd also recommend you check out Contagious: Why Things Catch on by Jonah Berger.
I'd also recommend Russell Brunson's Dotcom Secrets, which is coined as
"the underground guide to growing your business online". Also have a
look at Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and Top of Mind by John Hall. Looking to
take some courses?
Well on the free side of things, I definitely recommend
checking out the Digital Garage by Google and you could also take a look at
Hubspot's Inbound Academy. How about blogs and influencers? Well, some of my
favorites would be Brian Dean who has a great blog and YouTube channel,
there's also Seth Godin,
Digital marketing is actually transitioning
into a new age. One where marketers are taking ownership of more than just
acquiring new customers. This is known as growth marketing or growth hacking.
And digital marketers can actually transition into this to take a more
data-driven approach to their trade. It looks at the whole funnel, not just
customer acquisition but retention and beyond. It's about building a growth
engine and this is really valuable for businesses.
Some of the books we
recommend? Well, there's Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz. Looking
for some online resources.
4. Analytical Reasoning.
Top digital skill number 4:
Analytical Reasoning. In a world full of data, businesses require people that
can make sense of it and turn it into actionable and smart decisions.
Analytical reasoning is the ability to inspect information and from it, discern
patterns and trends that lead to actionable decisions. And the demand for this is
about to blow up. Why?
Well, data science is actually suffering from the last mile
problem. Businesses are really struggling with this. There's a gap between a
business's tech expertise and its operational expertise. There's such a need
for this that we recently launched a new Data Traineeship to help fill the gap.
we're going to help organizations to develop what we call Analytics
Translators. Analytics translators bridge the gap between an organization's
technical expertise and its operational expertise. They help to convey
business goals to data professionals while ensuring data solutions provide
insights that the businesses can use to inform decision making.
So where to go
and learn? Well, I turned to Bernardo again for his recommendations. On the book
front, he recommends Practical Statistics for Data Scientists from Andrew and
Peter Bruce.
Some courses to take? If you're looking for something you can do
in your own time, the Microsoft Academy actually has a course on data analysis,
and of course, there's a Data Traineeship we've recently released here at
Growth Tribe. How about blogs and people to follow? Well, Bernardo actually
recommends the Field Guide to Data Science by Booz Allen. We'd also recommend
you go and check out KD nuggets.
5. Design Thinking
Top digital skill number 5:
Design Thinking. According to CIO, Design Thinking is becoming a key pillar in
digital transformations. In fact, Microsoft calls it a "key skill of the
future".
All the world's leading brands are rapidly adopting the design
thinking approach. What is it, and why is it a top digital skill? well in a
digital world it's sometimes really easy to overlook the one thing that really
matters: us, the humans. We're the endpoint of any product or service, digital
or not.
Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we try to understand
the user which leads to better products, services, and internal processes. So
how about some books to read? With a focus on human behavior and the systems
that drive the way we think, we highly recommend Thinking Fast and Slow.
There's also Creative Confidence from the founders of Ideo. This is on
unleashing the creativity that lies within each and every one of us. Tim Brown also
wrote Changed by Design. This is why design belongs to every level of
business. How about some courses to take? If you want a bit of an introduction
to design thinking, go check out Thinking for innovation by Coursera. Blogs,
people to follow? The one I'd recommend is the Design Thinking blog by Ideo
themselves.
6. Cloud Computing.
Digital skill number 6:
Cloud Computing. Our world is moving into the clouds. And as it does,
businesses are looking more and more for the people that have the skills to
take them there.
In basic terms cloud computing is about storing and accessing
data over the internet rather than on your local hard drive or computer. This
means businesses, especially large enterprises really need expertise,
especially in cloud security. This report from OpsRamp found 94% of IT
organizations are actually struggling to find the right talent to build
dynamic, flexible, and cost-effective cloud services.
In fact, the report is
named "From a Cloud-Native Skills Gap to a Full-Blown Crisis". This
means if you can master cloud computing skills you're gonna be in really high
demand. So how about some books to read? Well the data team here at Growth
Tribe recommends the Data Engineering Cookbook by Andreas Kretz. What about
courses? Well as it's so widely used, we recommend the AWS Cloud Practitioner
exam. This is a certified exam to help gain a deep understanding of the AWS
cloud. How about some blogs? Well, you could go check out Cloud Computing News
and there's also the Amazon Web Server blog itself.
7. Digital Project Management.
Digital skill number 7:
Digital Project Management. The world is digitizing rapidly. This means more of
the work that we do and more of the projects that we run are digital.
Businesses need project managers specialized in delivering digital projects. So
this means to become one you're going to need a firm grasp of digital
technologies.
Software engineering teams, digital marketing teams, e-commerce
businesses, all demand digital project managers. They make sure shit gets done
in a digital world. So where to go to learn?
We asked our digital project
management and operations team here at Growth Tribe for their recommendations.
How about some books? Emma recommends Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio.
Here he shares his unconventional principles, management techniques, and methods
of making business decisions to drive results in life and business. Also check
out Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan. While
it has more of a focus on product development and product marketing, all good
digital project managers should think of the end-user so it's definitely worth
checking this out.
You could also check out Product Leadership: How Top Product
Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams. And for a more
actionable guide, you might want to have a look at Digital Project Management: A
Step- By-Step Guide to a Successful Launch. by Taylor Olson. What about
courses?
Anna Dia recommends Introduction to Project Management by UCI on
Coursera. Blogs, people to follow? Maybe head over to check out Toggl's blog,
and this is not a blog per se, but Emma does recommend checking out this Medium
article for more book recommendations.
In the future of work, it's important
that we take our learning into our own hands. It's our responsibility to
anticipate and to prepare for this future of work. By doing so, you'll ensure
you stay relevant and ensure you stay valuable. We all need a grasp of the
complexity of digital so start to gain an understanding of some of the skills
we've mentioned in this video in order to future-proof your own career.
And
remember, you can grab the list of all the resources we mentioned in this blog in the description below. Got any questions? Let me know in the comments. Happy
learning!
