“Back in March, I spoke at ProductCamp Cascadia (an online conference hosted by ProductCamp Portland, ProductCamp Seattle, and ProductCamp Vancouver) exploring the topic of design justice. I refined the talk and gave it again yesterday at IndustryConf. You can either watch the recording above or read an edited transcript below.”
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 argues that product management is a series of choices about which problems, customers, and features to pursue, and that personas are one of his favorite tools for making them. A persona is an archetype of an…
Duolingo's VP of Engineering Sean Colombo shares five growth lessons from scaling daily active users from 5 million to nearly 30 million. The core argument is that urgency and fast experiment rollout compound growth…
Marty Cagan introduces Martina Lauchengco's book LOVED, which argues that product/market fit has two halves: a strong product and a strong market approach. Building on his earlier work on product discovery, he contends…
Lenny Rachitsky compiles a list of fifteen practical sources for product roadmap ideas, drawn partly from community suggestions. The core argument is that strong ideas come from direct customer contact, observing…
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 internal products, while worth treating as real products, carry a lower bar on value, usability, feasibility and viability than commercial products. Internal users cannot switch to competitors…
Lenny Rachitsky shares how he evaluates marketplace business ideas after reviewing 100+ companies. He argues that founders and investors should first test the underlying business against seven core criteria…
Marty Cagan addresses a common objection from non-tech companies: that the product operating model doesn't apply to them. He argues that being a 'tech company' is about how a business chooses to power its offering with…
Teresa Torres introduces opportunity solution trees as a visual tool that lets product trios map the paths from a desired outcome to customer opportunities, candidate solutions, and assumption tests. The article argues…
When COVID-19 closed international borders in 2020, Seera Group's Digital Hotels team saw demand shift from hotels to domestic alternative accommodations like chalets and Istrahas. Using opportunity solution trees built…
Lenny Rachitsky surveys founders and growth leads from Grubhub, OpenTable, Caviar, Instacart, Snackpass and Peerspace on how marketplaces expanded into new cities. The core argument is that expansion should follow once…
Teresa Torres argues that most product ideas are born from fleeting thoughts, but only some should become businesses. She offers a set of questions to test an idea's viability before investing heavily. Her approach…
Cagan argues that once leaders decide which problems product teams should tackle, the mechanics of assigning objectives matter a great deal. Leaders own the decision of which team takes which problem, guided by product…
The author describes a lunchtime request from a sales director to build a feature that could keep a few at-risk customers, and argues that the framing of 'should we build it or not' is too narrow. Drawing on Chip and…
Jason Fried argues that while curiosity about what's new is expected, it is more valuable to study what has lasted. Products, practices, and ideas that survive repeated attempts to kill them contain durable lessons…
This essay describes how Ramsey Solutions, a financial education company, approached its digital transformation by first examining its own identity and capabilities rather than only envisioning its future. Its CEO's…
Marty Cagan argues that a product proving it works and is usable is not the same as a product people will actually choose to buy and use. He calls the smallest functional, usable version a 'Minimal Product' and reserves…
The post answers how to increase a product's virality, first arguing that virality should only be a primary growth engine when the product naturally suits it, versus performance marketing, content, or sales. It defines…
Lenny Rachitsky examines whether startups need a strong 'why now' to win over investors and build large businesses. He argues a clear answer helps, since it can enable a much better product or open an untapped market…
April Dunford argues that B2B buyers often choose "no decision" because purchases feel high-stakes and confusing, making indecision the real competitor. She proposes a two-part sales pitch: a setup that teaches the…
Marty Cagan argues that the essential nature of technology-powered products is hard to grasp until you've worked on a strong product team, and that most people think they understand it but don't. He highlights a rarely…
Lenny Rachitsky announces Atelier Ventures, the debut $13 million fund of Li Jin, who coined the 'passion economy' term in a 2019 essay. The fund backs platforms that broaden access to new forms of work, lower barriers…