Marty Cagan shares an explicit product manager job description tailored to empowered product teams, where PMs are accountable for outcomes rather than just delivering features. He explains that the PM owns making sure a…
Marty Cagan revisits his earlier argument that the product manager should also be the product owner, admitting he made a strategic mistake by treating the two titles as synonyms. Many people who took short product owner…
Lenny Rachitsky answers the common interview question of what a product manager does, offering a working definition centered on delivering business impact through a team and customer problems. He frames the day-to-day…
“Are you part of a company that has grown through mergers or acquisitions? Does your company have a portfolio of products they’ve built? If there is a horizontal strategy at play, then the executive leadership probably has intentions of integrating the different products to create a competitive advantage with a “best in suite” angle.”
Cagan and Fredell argue that most M&A deals fail to deliver expected results, and that the usual due diligence misses what matters most: whether the acquired organization can keep building successful products under the…
Executive coach Joe Hudson argues that as AI commoditizes knowledge and effort, the scarce advantage becomes emotional clarity. He lays out a "wisdom stack" of four traits (discernment, productive conflict, willingness…
Marty Cagan, a longtime product leader, argues that Google, despite its strong performance and assets, is at risk over the long term for two reasons: weak conversion of product opportunities into finished, integrated…
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 many Agile trainers and coaches who work with software teams lack the experience needed for commercial product companies, and that the poor work he has repeatedly cleaned up after is a persistent…
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…
Lenny Rachitsky shares results from a survey of nearly 1,000 responses across more than 600 companies, aiming to show how the product manager role differs across the industry. The survey covers which skills companies…
Teresa Torres addresses the most common reader question about her book Continuous Discovery Habits: why user researchers, marketers, data analysts and other roles were not named in the product trio. She explains that…
Cagan argues that innovation is harder in large companies because growing organizations become risk-averse, but it is still possible and essential. He says corporate culture and one's manager are the biggest factors…
Teresa Torres argues that every member of the product trio (product manager, designer, engineer) is jointly responsible and accountable for all five risk areas: desirable, viable, feasible, usable, and ethical…
Marty Cagan argues that a company building its first in-house design team should not simply recreate the old agency model, where designers received specs and produced screens. Modern product designers work continuously…
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 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…
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 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…
The article argues that product and corporate leaders should manage their teams the way professional sports coaches and general managers do: continuously evaluating talent, upgrading skills, and filling critical gaps…
Teresa Torres argues that the belief that product teams must be co-located is outdated, since many successful companies already run fully remote and global teams, and modern digital tools now provide most of the…
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 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…