Cagan argues that many companies blur business strategy and product strategy, which leaves executives buried in feature-level decisions and product managers without the context or empowerment they need. Business…
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 a core failure in product planning is that weak projects, which should be killed during product discovery before reaching engineering, often are not. He identifies seven recurring reasons for…
Cagan argues that when executives are deeply hands-on with products, product teams should use "visiontyping", a lightweight, high-fidelity prototype focused on core concepts rather than completeness. He contrasts three…
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 argues that Six Sigma, a quality-control methodology proven in manufacturing, does real damage when applied to software product discovery and development. He observes that once influential innovators such as…
Marty Cagan argues that product managers who spend their time prioritizing a laundry list of feature requests are working on the wrong problem. A feature-request roadmap pushes unvalidated features into the plan, skips…
Marty Cagan argues that the most important thing a product manager can do is get ideas in front of real target users, since that is where real learning happens. He addresses two kinds of gatekeepers who try to stand in…
Marty Cagan argues that removing usability problems and bugs only gets a product to the absence of pain, which is not the same as delighting users. Great products cause pleasure, sometimes from raw value, but often from…
Marty Cagan argues that economic downturns, while painful, can be a productive period for product teams and companies that know how to use them. Beyond the defensive measure of cutting costs to extend runway, he…
Cagan argues that the 'Business Analyst' role, common in IT and custom-software shops where it gathers requirements for developers, becomes a problem when transplanted into a product organization. There it duplicates…
Marty Cagan argues that a layoff, though painful, can be turned into a valuable period for building product management skills and becoming a more desirable candidate. He briefly advises keeping professional social…
Cagan describes a role that appears in large matrixed companies: the business owner, who represents a business unit (by geography, device, or function) that a central product organization serves. He argues this role can…
Marty Cagan argues that enterprise software companies sometimes need to become consumer or small-business companies, whether because enterprise markets are saturated, investors demand bigger markets, or leaders tire of…
Cagan introduces the idea of a 'line' that separates the two fundamental activities of building software products: deciding what to build (left of the line) and building it (right of the line). Left of the line covers…
Marty Cagan argues that product managers are fundamentally in the business of managing risk, and that playing it safe by only adding small features and fixes is often the riskiest choice over time. Because innovation…
Marty Cagan argues that product management certification is premature and counterproductive for the software industry. He notes that the field is far from scientific, that software product success rates are poor, and…
Marty Cagan argues that the word "beta" has become so ambiguous that its meaning depends on what a team is trying to accomplish. He describes four distinct uses: a QA phase handled with real users, a gentle deployment…
Marty Cagan argues that web products spread worldwide quickly, but making them work well in other countries requires a different product approach than simply localizing a US product. Early companies that handed off US…
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…
Many established companies that began as retailers, airlines, or financial firms now sell directly to customers online, yet they often manage that customer-facing software the way they manage internal IT systems. The…
Marty Cagan argues that product strategy has been an unintended casualty of the move to Agile methods, leaving teams chasing features without direction. He defines product strategy as a persuasive, two-to-five-year…
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 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…
Cagan distinguishes market discovery, which identifies worthwhile opportunities or markets, from product discovery, which determines whether a specific product is valuable, usable, and feasible. He argues the two are…
Marty Cagan argues that high-fidelity prototypes are one of the most powerful tools for discovering a product that is valuable, usable and feasible. He lists ten benefits, including testing ideas with users before major…
Cagan argues that a fairly standard organizational structure has emerged for product organizations, and that its shape affects behavior even though role definitions matter more. He contends that a CEO/COO or division GM…
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 engineers often make excellent product managers because they understand what is technically possible, and that the move from engineering to product management requires specific mindset and skill…
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…