Marty Cagan responds to a public interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky by examining alternatives to product managers. He defines product management as owning the value and viability of what gets built, and argues that…
Marty Cagan addresses a frequent complaint from product managers at large companies: their managers keep shifting direction, producing constant rework and frustration. He acknowledges that such churn is a structural…
Marty Cagan argues that product opportunities are far from exhausted, pointing to three reasons: products that frustrate users always invite better alternatives, what is technically feasible keeps shifting, and today's…
Marty Cagan argues that Apple's repeated success in redefining consumer markets comes from product discipline rather than marketing. Written around the iPhone's debut, the essay contends that Apple gets the ordering of…
Marty Cagan responds to readers who argued that any tool or process can be used well or badly, so blaming the process is misplaced, and that culture matters more than process. He agrees culture is central but argues…
Marty Cagan and Bob Baxley argue that in the Generative AI era, strong product managers and product designers become more essential, not less, but only when those roles are defined by their specific, demanding skill…
Marty Cagan introduces a re-recorded audio edition of INSPIRED and reflects on how the book has held up since its 2007 and 2017 editions. He argues its focus on underlying principles rather than current process is why…
Marty Cagan examines how product organizations tackle large, multi-team initiatives, such as a usability redesign or a localization push into a new market, that cannot be owned by a single team. He argues that the core…
Marty Cagan reviews Ken Kocienda's memoir Creative Selection, told from the perspective of an engineer who spent about 15 years at Apple and served as tech lead for key efforts, most notably the original iPhone…
Marty Cagan argues that most software companies handle product portfolio planning poorly, and that while no single process fits every company because culture and leadership matter, a set of overarching principles can…
Marty Cagan argues that after filtering out bad ideas, the next key tool for making hard investment choices is a Board of Advisors. Unlike a board of directors, which is shaped by investor duties and CEO oversight, an…
Marty Cagan argues that project-based funding, where companies approve discrete projects with business cases, is a poor model for building strong products. Teams cannot know early whether a project is worth pursuing or…
Marty Cagan argues that the most important thing a product manager coach brings is the right mindset, not just the right tools. Techniques like 1:1s can backfire if the manager uses them to assign tasks rather than…
Marty Cagan argues that as a company scales, the natural sharing of product learnings that happens in a small startup breaks down, so it must be done deliberately. He recommends a recurring, brief update, run by the VP…
Marty Cagan argues that competition is a constant in most markets, yet companies often waste energy reacting to rivals through feature-chasing and attacking competitors' weaknesses. He contends customers rarely leave…
Marty Cagan, a consultant who works mainly with CEOs and product leaders, writes an open letter to designers about common mistakes that undermine their impact on products. He argues that designers should be involved…
Marty Cagan argues that slow product delivery is usually not caused by weak developers but by organizational and process problems. Drawing on his work with many product teams, he lists the ten most common root causes of…
Marty Cagan argues that many product teams delay validating their ideas with real customers until it is too late, and that this delay is a common cause of disastrous product results. He notes that people often agree in…
Marty Cagan describes the "feed the beast" problem, where product teams feed a hungry development organization with specs just to keep engineers busy, regardless of whether the products are worth building. He argues…
Marty Cagan argues that product evangelism, which he describes as selling the dream, is a core job for founders and product managers alike. Without it, strong teams are hard to assemble at startups, and at larger…
Marty Cagan describes a common failure mode: once a product has customers, the same development team is pulled between urgent fixes and new product work, so both slow to a crawl and everyone becomes frustrated…
Marty Cagan argues that analytics has become a core competency for product leaders, driven by larger data volumes, better tools, and a growing belief that data can speed up learning. He identifies five uses of analytics…
Marty Cagan argues that as companies shift from stakeholder-driven feature teams to empowered product teams, the relationship between product teams and stakeholders must change on both sides. Creating a solution…
Marty Cagan argues that the best product managers think like owners rather than employees, taking responsibility for outcomes instead of merely completing activities. He draws on Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters to…
Marty Cagan argues that effective product managers need about four uninterrupted hours a day for product discovery: working out valuable, usable, feasible, and viable solutions to hard problems. He observes that many…
Marty Cagan responds to a debate sparked by Don Norman's essay arguing that big societal innovations are driven by technology first and needs later, which Norman frames against heavy upfront user research. Cagan says…
Marty Cagan argues that the most important trait of a capable product manager is the ability to think, which is distinct from raw intelligence. Product management is fundamentally problem solving under many simultaneous…
Marty Cagan argues that as teams move to frequent or continuous delivery, releases can surprise customers and internal stakeholders such as sales, service, and product marketing. Most incremental releases are invisible…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams learn most when they put early, rough ideas in front of real users, and that they should do so faster than feels comfortable. He notes that polishing ideas in private mostly deepens…
Marty Cagan argues that when looking for a product job, the most important factor is not the company's name but the manager you would report to. Before leaving a current feature-team role, he suggests first trying to…