By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan argues that many product teams grind through backlog stories without understanding the customer pain or business impact behind them, and that this is worsened by Kanban-style continuous delivery, multi-sprint objectives, and the loss of release as a rallying event. He proposes results-based milestones that represent real business value and outcomes rather than dates or outputs. Examples include a referenceable early customer, serving a new persona, hitting a KPI, launching on a new platform, or running a meaningful A/B test. Artificial intermediate states like code complete do not count. The product manager should define, prioritize, and evangelize these milestones so everyone on the team understands and celebrates them.
01Key takeaways
- Make sure every team member understands why each piece of work matters to the business.
- Define milestones by results and customer or business outcomes, not by dates or technical completion.
- Treat a referenceable early customer as a major milestone that unlocks sales momentum.
- Use milestones to replace the lost sense of purpose that releases used to provide.
- Have the product manager define, prioritize, and repeatedly communicate milestones.
- Celebrate milestone delivery to keep the team motivated and focused on meaningful work.
02Key sections
- The problem with backlog-driven teams
- Teams often work story by story without grasping why the work exists or how it moves the business. Managers sometimes respond by inventing deadlines, which causes its own problems.
- Why sprints and releases lost their focus
- Kanban and frequent releases can erode context, and many important objectives span several sprints. Releases no longer carry the sense of event they once did.
- What a results milestone is
- A milestone represents outcome rather than output and is defined by business value, not by a calendar date. Intermediate technical states do not qualify.
- Examples of meaningful milestones
- Cagan gives examples such as a live referenceable customer, supporting a new persona, reaching a KPI target, shipping on Android, or running a valid A/B test.
- The product manager's role
- The PM defines, prioritizes, and evangelizes milestones so the whole team understands and celebrates them.
03From the post
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04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.