By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan answers reader follow-up questions after his previous article on the two product worlds he works in. He points readers to books that explain the cultures and product practices of Apple, Amazon, Google and Netflix, while cautioning that every author writes through a particular lens. He then recommends empowerment-focused leadership books and explains that they argue for empowerment without showing how to build a product organization that lives it. Finally he addresses the criticism that helping legacy companies transform undermines startups, citing friendships, fairness, and the large pool of underused product talent inside those firms.
01Key takeaways
- Read company-specific books on Apple, Amazon, Google and Netflix to understand how strong product organizations actually operate.
- Treat any book about a company as one author's lens, not a complete account of its practices.
- Empowerment books persuade leaders of the principle but rarely show how to structure teams to practice it.
- Helping established companies improve matters for the people who work there, not only for the companies themselves.
- Much product talent is underutilized in weak organizations, so better operating models unlock significant untapped potential.
02Key sections
- Learning from the best product companies
- Cagan recommends a book for each of four strong product companies and explains which aspect of each company's approach it captures. He notes that each book reflects its author's perspective.
- Books on empowerment as leadership
- He lists ten favorite books on empowerment and leadership culture. He observes that these works argue for empowerment but do not explain how to structure a product and technology organization around it.
- Defending the work of helping legacy companies
- Responding to a critic who says incumbents are the reason startups exist, Cagan gives three reasons he helps established companies transform.
- The untapped talent problem
- Cagan argues that many product people are underused or wasted in their current companies, and that they often cannot easily move to better ones.
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.