I’m a product manager with 15 years in the lighting industry.
Since entering the field in 2011, I’ve worked across roles — foreign trade sales, factory manager, product manager — and across segments: from LED sign lighting and linear lighting to smart lighting (health + ambiance + mood). I’ve shifted from B2B products for B2B customers to consumer products sold through B2B channels, and from European to North American markets. Along the way, friends keep asking me: Is there still opportunity in this industry? Where do we go next?
To be honest, I’ve wondered the same. After all these years making lights, is it really just about squeezing a few more percentage points of efficacy, or cutting a few more dollars from the BOM?
Today, I sat through an entire day at the Shanghai Intelligent Lighting Association (SILA) 3rd General Assembly and the 2025 AI & Net-Zero New Development Forum. I listened to over a dozen industry experts and filled pages of notes. Walking out, what stuck with me wasn’t a specific technical parameter — it was a clear realization:
The lighting industry’s second half is quietly changing lanes.
I’m sharing these observations not as a conference recap, but as a reference point for fellow veterans who, like me, have been in this industry for years and occasionally feel lost. If this helps you, the article was worth writing.
Shift #1: From “Functional Lighting” to “Experiential Lighting”
After 15 years in product, my deepest feeling is this: my generation of lighting professionals was trained on parameters.
Efficacy in lumens per watt, color rendering index (CRI), color temperature deviation in SDCM, rated lifetime in hours — pick up a fixture, and we instinctively reach for the spec sheet. Good specs meant a good product. That logic held for decades.
But at this conference, the words I heard most weren’t traditional specs. They were: wellness, emotional value, healing, aging-in-place, children’s lighting, pet economy.
What does that mean? The value of light is shifting from “illuminating a space” to “shaping a person’s state of being.”
A few concrete directions:
·Wellness light: Blue-light-free, phosphor-free golden light — a technology that won China’s National Natural Science First Prize
·Sleep & healing: Sleep-aid lighting, light therapy, mmWave radar for sleep monitoring
·Emotional value: Pastel light paired with aromatherapy and white noise for mood regulation
·Niche scenarios: The elderly, children, pets — each demographic has unique lighting environment needs
You won’t find these on a traditional spec sheet. They don’t answer “is it bright enough?” They answer “does it feel good?”
For product managers, this is a fundamental shift. Before, you defined a lamp with an optical engineer’s mindset — tune the physical properties of light and you’re done. Going forward, you need a user experience mindset: you have to understand psychology, circadian rhythms, and the real needs of different user groups.
A light is no longer just a luminous object — it’s a lighting environment solution. That phrase has been tossed around for years, but this time, it feels like it’s actually landing.
Shift #2: From “Selling Hardware” to “Selling Services”
One point from the forum really resonated: business innovation is moving toward “smart hardware + subscription services + operational value-add.”
Why did this hit so hard? Because after 15 years in hardware, I know the pain of the one-and-done sale all too well. You sell a fixture, and the customer relationship ends there — unless something breaks and they need support. Reaching them again is next to impossible.
Smart lighting changes this.
Once a light is connected, it’s no longer a product frozen at the factory door. It can receive OTA updates, adjust light recipes based on user habits, integrate with other devices, and continuously deliver new scenes and features.
What does that mean? Buying your light is the beginning of the relationship, not the end.
Here’s an example: You used to sell a bedside lamp for 14.99,transactioncomplete.Goingforward,yousellasmartsleep−aidlamp—thehardwaremightstillbe14.99,transactioncomplete.Goingforward,yousellasmartsleep−aidlamp—thehardwaremightstillbe14.99, but you offer a subscription: monthly updated sleep light recipes, or personalized adjustments based on the user’s sleep data. The user pays a few dollars a month, and you have recurring revenue and ongoing engagement.
This isn’t science fiction. In my overseas product research, I’ve already seen Govee doing exactly this. The fact that this conference focused so heavily on it tells me domestic players are waking up to it too.
For product managers, this shift is a big challenge. You can’t just think about “what the product is when it ships.” You have to think about “what the product becomes after a year of use.” Hardware is the entry point. Services are the real moat.
Shift #3: From “Product Competition” to “Ecosystem Competition”
One term came up constantly at this conference: Matter.
What is Matter? Put simply, it’s a universal connectivity protocol for smart homes. Previously, smart devices from different brands operated in silos — your lamp couldn’t talk to your speaker, and the user experience suffered. Matter solves this: everyone uses the same standard, and devices communicate seamlessly.
Beyond Matter, there’s the Zhaga standard, DALI, lighting data quality standardization… these might sound technical, but the trend is clear: the lighting industry is moving from “going it alone” to “ecosystem collaboration.”
For those of us in product, the impact is direct.
Before, when selecting a solution, you mainly looked at performance and cost. Is the chip good? Is the driver efficient? Can we bring the BOM down? Those still matter, but now you have to ask more questions:
·Does this solution support Matter?
·Can it integrate with major smart home ecosystems?
·Does the data format comply with industry standards?
·How well does it interoperate with other devices?
Don’t dismiss this as “nice to have.” From my conversations with B2B customers, major overseas clients — especially in Europe — now treat protocol compatibility and ecosystem integration as a baseline requirement, not a bonus. Without it, you don’t even qualify to bid.
China might be a step behind, but the direction is the same. Tomorrow’s lighting product isn’t an isolated fixture — it’s a node in the smart home ecosystem. Early movers capture the upside; latecomers pay tuition.
Shift #4: From “Product Compliance” to “Full-Lifecycle Compliance”
I want to flag this especially for colleagues in overseas markets.
At this conference, terms like carbon footprint, carbon emissions, eco-friendly packaging, circular economy came up constantly. The EU’s carbon footprint requirements are tightening, packaging materials face strict rules, and the circular economy is a hard trend. China is also building its own carbon emission factor system.
Some might say: That’s the environmental department’s problem, what does it have to do with product managers?
Everything.
Because these requirements ultimately land on product definition. What materials do you use? How do you design for disassembly and recycling? How do you reduce packaging? How do you calculate the product’s total carbon footprint? These aren’t questions for the production line — they need to be answered on day one of product definition.
When I took my NPDP training in the US back in 2021, the circular economy was a major module. Back then, it felt distant. Now it’s at our doorstep.
After 15 years in product, I’ve learned: many external constraints feel like “a hassle” when they first appear, but they end up reshuffling the industry. Those who prepare early gain a step when the rules change.
Carbon footprint is exactly that. Those who start paying attention now will be ready when EU regulations fully kick in in a couple of years. While everyone else is scrambling, you’ll already be taking orders.
Final Thoughts: For Lighting Professionals Still Wondering Where to Go
With all these shifts, some might feel anxious: Can I keep up with so much change?
Honestly, I’ve felt anxious too. Every time the industry changes lanes, veterans go through an adjustment period.
But after 15 years, I’ve also realized something: the technology and the赛道 change, but a product manager’s fundamentals don’t.
What are the fundamentals? Insight into user needs. Judgment of industry trends. The ability to turn an idea into a great product. These don’t become useless when technology changes — if anything, the faster technology moves, the more they matter.
The biggest takeaway from this conference wasn’t learning a new technology. It was confirming a conviction I’ve been building: between 2026 and 2030, fully transitioning into an AI product manager for smart lighting is a path worth taking.
To my friends in the industry: if you’re also confused, hesitant, or unsure what comes next — that’s okay, it’s normal. In a period of industry transformation, who isn’t a little lost?
But don’t stop moving. Go see more, listen more, try more. And if you have questions, leave a comment — the pitfalls I’ve navigated and the experience I’ve built over 15 years, if they can help you, will have been worth it.
The lighting industry’s second half is still a long road. Let’s walk it together.
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