Most jobs become more and more technology reliant, and all of us need to adapt to this change, regardless of our position. In order to accommodate and future proof our career, we need to master hard skills that are now considered fundamental to employers. 

Last month, we had the chance to have Evan Burkosky, Country Manager Japan at Dynamic Yield, talk about hard skills to future proof your career during our live webinar. 

He divided these hard skills into four categories: 

1. Front-end Development 

2. UXO, UI Design and CRO

3. Analytics and Audience Segmentation

4. Machine Learning, AI and Deep Learning

On top of these, he also recommended useful resources on how to achieve these hard skills.

1. Front-end Development

There is a high demand for people who understand the “basic languages” of our digital world, especially in Japan. These languages are HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The reason why Japan is lacking people who can use those is mostly due to the fact that most of the traditional education paths here focus on back-end development, and this might be due to Japan’s history of focusing on monozukuri. 

Monozukuri refers to the ‘making of things’ in Japanese and, more broadly, includes manufacturing, as well as Japanese know-how and spirit. Because of this, many “basics” have been ignored up until now. They include marketing and advertising tools, as well as day-to-day work processes.

2. UXO, UI Design, and CRO

It is essential in today’s work environment to understand the concepts of User Experience Optimization (UXO), User Interface (UI) design and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), as they are the basis for providing customers with a good experience. These concepts are directly connected to front-end development, since they help figure out which user interface is the best for each audience segment.

On top of these, it is in your best interest to be able to do customer journey mapping to understand and predict what customers do when they come to your website, what steps they take or should take when they go through a checkout channel, or when they contact the customer service. 

You also need to understand the analytics about your customers’ behaviors on your website, be able to carry out A/B testing to try out different journeys and experiences for your customers, and optimize them. 

Additionally, you need to work on your website design best practices. This includes fonts, sizes, white spaces, and so on. All these elements are fundamental in order to understand how to provide customers with the best experience possible.

3. Analytics and Audience Segmentation

Before getting into the machine learning section, let’s talk about its foundation: big data. In order to enter this realm, you need analytics as a doorway. Analytics are direct insights into your audience’s behavior and the starting point of segmentation for personalization. Good analytics tools should provide you with real insights into who your customers are. 

In other words, analytics will help you segment your audience. Audience segmentation is the first stage of personalization and giving your customers the best experience on your website.

4. Machine Learning, AI, and Deep Learning

For data scientists, developers, data platform engineers, and business decision makers, machine learning, AI, and deep learning are the core tools of the future. More than others, and because of their complexity, they require a deeper study and understanding. 

To put it simply, both machine learning and deep learning are subsets of AI. Machine learning refers to computer algorithms that improve by themselves with the experience they acquire. 

Deep learning, on the other hand, is a subset of machine learning, and is a structure of artificial neural networks that continually analyze data, mimicking the structure of a human brain. 

AI and its subsets are the language of the future, so, even if they may be complicated, it is worth investing in at least understanding them.

Useful Resources for Hard Skills

If you are interested in getting these skills for yourself but you are not sure where to start, you can check out these resources:

Google Analytics free online courses

These courses will allow you to gain considerably beneficial knowledge about Google Analytics and how to use it. On top of being free, you can also get certified for having taken these courses.

Click here to access GA online courses

Google Developer’s training

Google Developer’s training is a resource that can prove useful if you are keen on Android, web development, machine learning, and more Google tools.

Click here to access Google Developer’s training

Amazon AWS free online courses

Just like GA’s online courses, Amazon AWS online courses are free and allow you to get certified. You can choose from different tracks, such as business decision maker, data platform engineer, data scientist or developer, and learn valuable insights from each of them.

Click here to access Amazon AWS online courses

Dynamic Yield XP2 experience optimization free online course

With this course, you can choose from multiple different paths: A/B testing and optimization, personalization and targeting, product recommendations, CRO and growth marketing, eCommerce experience optimization, and advanced experimentation. All of them are free and highly detailed.

Click here to access Dynamic Yield XP2 Experience Optimization online course

Note that the hard skills we discussed in this article are not supposed to keep you ahead of everyone else. As mentioned in the title, they are skills everyone should have acquired by now but that remain lacking for many. These are the hard skills you need to future proof your career as they are becoming basics in every industry. But hard skills are not everything, you need to couple them with soft skills in order to be successful. 

You can read about the soft skills you need to future proof your career here.

Faustine Verhaeghe
Marketing

LinkedIn