By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan argues against the view that a technology company is essentially made of engineers who build software and salespeople who sell it, with everyone else treated as overhead. He contends that combining even excellent engineers and salespeople tends to produce mediocre products, special-case customizations, wasted release cycles, and unhappy customers. Successful products, he explains, depend on product leaders and designers who lead discovery and definition, with engineers supporting. He also stresses that roles like project management, QA and release management, and online marketing drive velocity, quality, and acquisition. Leaders who dismiss these roles as overhead, he warns, will struggle to attract needed talent and risk building failed products.
01Key takeaways
- Don't treat everyone outside engineering and sales as overhead; they drive velocity, quality, and growth.
- Assign product leaders and designers to lead product definition and design, with engineers supporting discovery.
- Be wary of letting sales requests drive the roadmap, since this often produces special-case customizations.
- Recognize that good people in non-engineering roles are essential, and failing to hire them can doom products.
- Build a balanced team so that product quality, not just shipping speed, is protected.
02Key sections
- The persistent two-role myth
- Cagan notes that some leaders still view tech companies as only engineers and salespeople, a belief common in enterprise software and surprisingly present in some consumer internet firms.
- Why the duo leads to mediocrity
- He argues that an engineer-and-sales-only model tends to yield custom special-case work, wasted release cycles, weak products, and frustrated customers and engineers.
- Where product discovery really lives
- Engineers support product discovery, but product leaders and designers should lead defining and designing successful products, not salespeople or the customers they talk to.
- The value of the wider team
- Roles such as project management, QA, release management, and online marketing contribute to velocity, quality, and customer acquisition, so calling them overhead is a mistake.
03From the post
“A partnership dedicated to teaching best practices to product teams and product leaders”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.