“This article represents a significant change to what we have been advocating for the past two decades. But hopefully you will agree it is necessary, and that it also represents a substantial step forward. We have been gradually but consistently raising the alarm about the need for product owners and feature team product managers to... The post Product Coaching and…”
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion argue that a common mistake in organizational transformation, such as shifting to outcome-driven teams or a product operating model, is training everyone at once. Such broad mandates rarely…
Marty Cagan argues that Microsoft has managed to keep high staff quality during rapid growth, something most tech companies struggle with, and that its recruiting engine is a real competitive advantage. He describes his…
Teresa Torres argues that product managers and hiring managers often chase breadth, trying to be good at everything and ending up mediocre. She proposes a three-tiered approach: build foundational attributes that make…
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille address how product managers can choose a coach in a crowded market where thousands of self-described product coaches compete for attention. They argue that red flags such as overpromising…
Lenny Rachitsky's first weekly Q&A newsletter answers three reader questions: how to learn growth as a PM moving into a growth role, what a new PM should do in their first 90 days to earn trust, and whether an MBA is…
Teresa Torres argues that product teams shifting from managing outputs to managing outcomes need three mindsets to succeed at continuous discovery. She describes a collaborative mindset where the core trio (product…
Teresa Torres profiles Bianca Starling, a senior product manager at Voxy, who adopted continuous discovery habits by starting with a small, time-boxed MVP rather than overhauling the whole product organization. She…
Marty Cagan answers a set of recurring questions he fielded at a conference, distilled into a quick Q&A on how product organizations should be structured. He argues that product management defines what engineering…
Teresa Torres and community members explore how organizations moving from functional or platform teams (back-end, web, mobile) to cross-functional, value-driven product teams can make the transition. Functional…
Teresa Torres recounts a difficult period in 2011 when she was CEO of a struggling startup, dealing with severe anxiety and feeling unable to ask for help. After the company was sold and she stepped away, a master's…
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…
Coach Erika argues that first-round interviews exist mainly to filter candidates, so preparing efficiently matters more than endless practice. She presents a method called Minimum Viable Interview Prep (MVIP) covering…
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille examine the blurred line between product and engineering, where product managers drift into owning bugs, tech debt and architecture. They argue this starts as helpfulness but leads to PM…
Marty Cagan uses the question of whether a product manager is the 'CEO of the product' as a revealing interview prompt. He finds candidates typically fall into three groups: those drawn to the power and influence, those…
Marty Cagan argues that many companies undertaking a transformation to the product model make the ironic mistake of managing that transformation as a conventional big project, with program managers, Gantt-style plans…
This essay, the third in a series on meaningful transformation, argues that companies must change how they choose which problems to solve, not just how they build or solve them. It moves beyond feature roadmaps toward…
Marty Cagan argues that many companies outsource for the wrong reason, namely cost savings, when they should outsource to assemble the right product team. He notes that Silicon Valley's high living costs push talent…
Marty Cagan argues that the gap between the best product companies and the rest comes from a misunderstanding of technology's role. He recalls Marc Andreessen's warning that software is eating the world and notes that…
This case study follows Mike Donovan, SVP of Product at Sauce Labs, who credits a Product Discovery Fundamentals course with reshaping how his team works. Moving away from a feature factory where sales passed requests…
Marty Cagan argues that as more companies move toward the product operating model, political dynamics become central to change, and a well-designed pilot team is the key early step. A pilot acts as a low-cost, fast MVP…
Niya Dragova, co-founder of Candor, shares ten rules for salary negotiation aimed at tech professionals who find negotiating uncomfortable. She argues that compensation is deliberately opaque and that most people lose…
This interview-style post profiles Zaz Harris, a software engineer who moved into a product management role at her own company after her supervisors noticed her interest in product work and needed to fill a gap. The…
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…