Teresa Torres argues that the most important product decision is what to build next, and that common scoring spreadsheets built on customer demand, build time, and stakeholder needs lead to mediocre products. She…
Torres argues that teams should stop testing ideas at random and instead be strategic about what they experiment on. Rather than prioritizing a list of ideas by gut feel, teams should estimate expected outcomes…
Marty Cagan argues that prototyping is not one thing: teams often narrow the term to whichever prototype type they first encountered, and then misuse it. He lays out four main flavors: feasibility prototypes that answer…
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…
Teresa Torres describes how she rolled out the idea management tool Kindling at AfterCollege so that everyone in the company could contribute to idea generation and evaluation. The approach worked because it had clear…
Torres argues that many good ideas begin as seemingly infeasible or bad ideas, and that their value often emerges through hard work and reframing. She proposes evaluating ideas first against the team's vision and…
Teresa Torres responds to reactions to her earlier post arguing against traditional brainstorming. She clarifies how creative output is measured (fluency, flexibility, originality) and addresses objections about…
Teresa Torres argues that product leaders should not be the sole decision-makers on what to build, and that a company should instead empower its whole team to generate and evaluate ideas. She contends that…
Teresa Torres argues that once a product's success funnel converts well, the next step is growth, but only after that funnel is healthy; otherwise acquiring users just wastes time, energy and money. She introduces two…
Torres argues that good product goals start from the user's success rather than vanity product metrics like page views or time on site. She recommends defining a success funnel by comparing successful users with…
Marty Cagan argues that a startup's central goal is reaching Product-Market Fit, the point where a product has proven demand and justifies investing in sales, marketing and scale. He standardizes on Marc Andreessen's…
Teresa Torres argues that product builders make constant decisions, but human judgment is error-prone, so teams should deliberately design decision-making processes. She identifies eight critical decisions in building…
Teresa Torres argues that New Year's resolutions fail because people rely on willpower rather than habits, and she draws on habit research such as Charles Duhigg's work. She describes how she built sustainable routines…
Teresa Torres argues that most product teams lack a clear, written vision even though everyone agrees one is important. She identifies five reasons teams skip it: unclear ownership, the discomfort of saying no, the…
Teresa Torres walks through a worked example of a clear product vision using her side project GratiGrams, a service for sharing specific appreciation with others. She shows how a vision statement, mission, core values…
Teresa Torres argues that great products depend on a clear vision, which she treats as one of three pillars alongside sound decision making and building the right team. Product teams often assume alignment that doesn't…
Teresa Torres argues that great products rest on three pillars: a clear vision, thoughtful processes that support sound day-to-day decisions, and the right team. She admits her own uncertainty about what makes products…
Teresa Torres shares the personal productivity, reading, product-building, and collaboration tools she relies on as a product manager, startup builder, and graduate student. She opens with a caveat that she once…
Teresa Torres shares a list of lesser-known blogs she follows, inspired by Daniel Pink's year-end recommendations. Rather than product blogs, she highlights writers covering learning, decision making, happiness…
Marty Cagan argues that the largest source of technology waste is not government projects or startups but large non-tech companies such as banks, insurers, airlines and retailers. These firms, often run by CIOs or CFOs…
Teresa Torres, a product discovery coach, shares the standout books from her 2013 reading list of roughly 50 titles. She recommends a mix of sales, energy management, luck versus skill, analytics, presentation…
Teresa Torres argues that people often hear what they expect rather than what was actually said, which leads teams to disagree about the same user interview and to build the wrong product. Because great products depend…
Teresa Torres shares a short, personal reflection prompted by a quote from Brett Martin about his decision to step away from his startup Sonar. Her core point is that founders sometimes must concede a battle to win the…
Teresa Torres argues that remote teams are becoming the norm, and that companies focus too much on their benefits while underestimating the challenges. Drawing on her experience with distributed graduate-school teams…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams should design for specific personas rather than vague generic users. Using eBay seller tools as an example, he sketches three detailed fictional people with different backgrounds…
Marty Cagan argues that product discovery and rapid test-and-learn techniques, which startups use, apply equally to established companies. Startups have no legacy to protect, so they can take big risks cheaply…
Torres argues that job seekers should treat themselves as a product, defining a few clear value propositions that differentiate them, much as successful products focus on a specific use case. She shows how to map those…
Teresa Torres argues that job seekers should research their target market and specific companies before applying, treating the search like product discovery. She suggests interviewing the target companies' customers…
Teresa Torres argues that job seekers should treat themselves as a product and, like any good product, target a narrow market rather than trying to appeal to everyone. A broad search across trendy tech companies leaves…
Torres argues that the standard job-hunt routine of polishing a resume and mass-applying to postings rarely works, even for strong candidates. Instead, she proposes treating yourself as a product and applying the…