Marty Cagan, a longtime admirer of Apple, argues that the first Apple Watch after Steve Jobs is a disappointing product that falls short of Apple's usual standards of value. He criticizes its dependence on the phone…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams can find major opportunities by letting customers use their products for purposes the company never planned or officially supports. He describes this as a third path beyond…
Marty Cagan argues that while empowered, cross-functional product teams have become the norm and boost motivation and ownership, teams often feel constrained by shared foundations. He frames the core tension as a…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams need to move fast, and that many teams still hold a Waterfall-era belief that speed trades off against quality and innovation. He contends that speed is valuable for reasons beyond…
Marty Cagan, writing with Chuck Geiger, argues that a product manager's success depends heavily on the working relationship with the head of product development, often called the CTO. The essay defines the scope of that…
Marty Cagan and Jeff Patton argue that product teams should be judged by the outcomes they generate rather than the output they ship. The article offers a practical checklist of questions to diagnose how strong a…
This tribute essay by Christian Idiodi remembers Jeremiah Ivan, a former VP of Engineering he worked alongside at Merrill and Snagajob, using anecdotes to show what makes an agent of change. Ivan's unconventional…
Marty Cagan writes a tribute to Mike Homer, a Silicon Valley pioneer and mentor who died of CJD, using his memorial service to reflect on what makes great product leaders. Cagan argues that the best leaders are deeply…
Marty Cagan highlights a talk by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and draws out four principles that connect to his thinking on product portfolio planning. The core message is that great product companies focus relentlessly on…
Marty Cagan describes a less common product-team role: subject matter experts (SMEs) or domain experts, who have deep knowledge of the business's particular field, such as tax, payroll regulation, or medicine. He argues…
Marty Cagan and Martina Lauchengco argue that the terms "product" and "solution" are often misused, especially in enterprise and infrastructure software. They define a real product as one customers pay for, that works…
Marty Cagan argues that stakeholder management is a frequent pain point for product managers, but it can be substantially improved. He defines stakeholders narrowly as people who hold veto power over launching work…
Marty Cagan argues that as companies grow, decisions drift toward committee consensus, where the goal shifts from building something great to avoiding blame, and innovation stalls. He proposes keeping product discovery…
Marty Cagan revisits the Silicon Valley slogan "we eat our own dog food," which he once repeated at Netscape, and now calls it meaningless. Using your own product is just another form of QA, not something to brag about…
Marty Cagan argues that a product manager's core job is discovering products that are valuable, usable and feasible, and that engineering must be involved early to achieve feasibility. Waiting until engineering sees a…
Marty Cagan argues that no single product management model fits every company; the right one depends on context, and it is best chosen by starting from the problems a company is actually experiencing. Drawing on his…
Marty Cagan argues that many companies wrongly merge product management with project management, a habit inherited from shipped-software companies like Microsoft. That model breaks down for internet services, where many…
Marty Cagan reflects on his first weeks with the original iPhone to extract product lessons. He argues that breakthrough products cannot come from focus groups or pundits, since users only describe incremental…
Marty Cagan argues that generative AI will reshape product teams over the next 3-10 years. Delivery work (building, testing, deploying) will become nearly instantaneous and automated, leaving product discovery, which is…
In this interview-based essay, Marty Cagan talks with serial entrepreneur Danny Shader about what makes a CEO effective at building products customers love. Shader argues that the CEO's personal attention to product…
Marty Cagan argues that a product team's primary scorecard metric should change depending on the stage the product is in. He describes three stages: MVP, where the only goal is winning several happy, referenceable…
Marty Cagan argues that Agile methods, such as Scrum and XP, change but do not eliminate the product manager's job, and he offers guidance specific to product software rather than custom or IT projects. The product…
Marty Cagan argues that 'The Innovator's Dilemma' describes a symptom of large-company decline rather than its root cause. Drawing on Ben Horowitz's 'Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO' framing, he contends that startups are…
Marty Cagan argues that the head of product management, typically a Director or VP, is one of the most consequential roles in a high-tech company, because a great product can redefine a business and a few failed…
Marty Cagan argues that great product managers are rare but identifiable, and that the best way to find them is to screen for a specific set of traits and skills. He stresses that traits like product passion, customer…
Marty Cagan argues that popular product measurement tools, such as product scorecards and Eric Ries's 'innovation accounting', are valuable for focusing on outcomes but are insufficient on their own. Measuring only…
Marty Cagan argues against a common corporate arrangement that splits the product role between a 'product manager' who handles customers and stakeholders and a 'product owner' who handles the backlog and developers. He…
Marty Cagan pays tribute to Steve Jobs following his death, calling him arguably the greatest figure in the product world. He credits Jobs with tackling very hard problems and producing products that defined their…
Marty Cagan argues that good product teams must excel at product discovery, which is fundamentally a skill of learning quickly: identifying the right target customer, finding the key problems to solve, and designing…
Marty Cagan reviews Eric Ries's book "The Lean Startup" and argues it is one of the best product books in years, relevant to both new and experienced product people and not only early-stage startups. He notes Ries…