Once a year Gartner, the renowned market research company, publishes an update on their hype cycle on emerging technologies. This is always useful food for thought for product managers, technology managers, and CxOs.

In case you are not familiar with Gartner’s hype cycle: The heuristics behind this say that any new technology moves through the hype cycle. First there is a lot of positive hype, then people make first practical experiences and get disillusioned before the technology matures, people learn how to use it, and it becomes mainstream. The time it takes for a technology to go through this cycle can differ between a few years and several decades. Some technologies die before maturity.

As a product or technology manager, you may not agree with all of Gartner’s assessment results that go into the hype cycle. Nevertheless, this is good input that helps you to assess which emerging technologies could become relevant for your product or company when, and when is the appropriate time to look into the technology in more detail.

This latest edition on emerging technologies puts a strong focus on innovation, in particular in the area of digital business. You can find more detailed information in the accompanying Gartner reports on this and other hype cycles that come with a hefty price tag unless your company is a Gartner subscriber.

Click here for the full press release.