By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan recommends Stratechery, Ben Thompson's newsletter on tech strategy, as a valuable resource for product managers and leaders. He argues that a key part of product leadership is understanding markets, competitors, business models, and industry dynamics. Cagan values Thompson both for his broad coverage of the tech companies that matter and for the way he reasons about strategy. He presents the newsletter as a time-saver that sharpens strategic thinking. The note is short and is a personal endorsement with no connection to the author.
01Key takeaways
- Staying current on market trends, competitors, and business models is a core product leadership responsibility.
- Follow analysts whose coverage spans the companies and industries you care about to save research time.
- Learn from how a strategist reasons, not just from their conclusions.
- Free tiers of strong strategy writing can offer solid value before committing to paid depth.
- Reading consistent, high-quality strategy analysis can measurably improve your own strategic thinking.
02Key sections
- Why market understanding matters
- Strong product leaders must track trends, competitors, business model shifts, and broader industry forces. Cagan frames this as a core responsibility rather than an optional extra.
- A favored strategy source
- Cagan introduces Stratechery and its free weekly analysis, with a paid daily tier for deeper coverage. He notes he subscribes himself.
- Why he subscribes
- He gives two reasons: the newsletter saves time tracking key tech companies, and Thompson's way of thinking about strategy has improved his own strategic skill.
- Recommendation
- Cagan has no relationship with the author beyond being a fan and encourages the product people he works with to read the newsletter.
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.