Holistic View of Product

As a product grows from one team to many, keeping a holistic view of how the whole product fits together becomes very hard. Cagan argues that three senior roles are needed to hold that view: a principal designer for consistent interaction design, a principal product manager for the business side of the system, and a software architect for the technical side. Each role should sit where it is visible and accessible to the whole organization, not buried in management. When these roles are missing, the symptoms show up quickly as inconsistent UX, stalled projects, or tangled code. The essay also argues that documentation cannot replace these people, so companies should invest in retaining them and grooming successors.

01Key takeaways

• Assign one senior person to review all user-visible interactions so the experience stays consistent across teams.
• Keep the principal product manager an individual contributor close to the product rather than a manager buried in administration.
• Place the software architect where they are visible and available to the entire technology organization, usually reporting to the head of technology.
• Treat a sprawling, inconsistent product or slow engineering changes as signs that a specific holistic role is missing.
• Retain these rare experts and groom at least one strong successor for each, since documentation rarely captures the full picture.
• Don't rely on documentation alone; in software, the definitive answer usually lives in the source code.

02Key sections

The three elements of a holistic view

Growth makes it impossible for any one person to hold the whole product in their head, so the company needs specific roles to own the big picture. The essay names three: a principal designer, a principal product manager, and a software architect.

Principal designer for user experience

One senior designer should review everything user-visible to keep interactions consistent and effective across the product. Visual consistency can be handled with style guides, but interaction consistency requires a dedicated reviewer.

Principal product manager for the business view

A very senior, ideally individual-contributor product manager should own how strategy, functionality, and business rules fit together. Being a people manager would pull them away from the product itself, which they must remain close to.

Software architect for the technical view

An architect reviews the design of all software, both in-house and vendor-built, and should report to the head of technology. This role matters most in large systems with many legacy components.

Warning signs and retention

Inconsistent sites, stalled projects, and spaghetti code signal which role is missing. Cagan advises retaining these rare people and grooming a strong second for each, since documentation has never fully replaced them.

03From the post

“A partnership dedicated to teaching best practices to product teams and product leaders”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.