Marty Cagan argues that the product industry needs more skilled product coaches, and that many self-described coaches lack real product experience. He insists that effective product coaching must rest on relevant…
Marty Cagan argues that the current trend of cutting managers in favor of pure individual-contributor builders is a temporary phase rather than the future. He restates the principle that experts lead experts: effective…
Marty Cagan argues that product companies can learn a great deal from venture capital firms, which are also in the business of making product investments and maximizing returns. He contrasts VC practices with typical…
Marty Cagan revisits his earlier framing of product success as valuable, usable, and feasible, arguing that the single word 'valuable' hid serious business risk and let product managers overweight customer value. He…
Marty Cagan argues that organizations believe they are good at focus but usually chase 20-30 'critical' initiatives when only two or three truly matter. He contrasts this with Pandora's stakeholder-driven prioritization…
Marty Cagan answers the most common questions readers raised after his article proposing an alternative to conventional product roadmaps. He argues that engineers should help decide what to build, that outcome-based…
Marty Cagan argues that "product sense" is a misleading term because it suggests an innate gift, when in reality it is deep product knowledge built through sustained immersion in a specific product space. He describes…
Marty Cagan extends Marc Andreessen's 'software is eating the world' thesis beyond software itself, arguing that modern product techniques are disrupting entrenched industries such as automotive, animation, and…
Marty Cagan argues that product organizations focused on team autonomy still need deliberate forms of collaboration around objectives. He describes two patterns: shared objectives, where several teams co-own a goal such…
Marty Cagan argues that empowered product teams need hard problems to solve, and product strategy is the discipline of deciding which problems matter. He observes that many companies have plenty of features and projects…
Marty Cagan announces the pre-order launch of his new book EMPOWERED, co-written with Chris Jones, and explains how it complements INSPIRED. He argues that many companies can teach product teams strong practices but…
Marty Cagan argues that the best products often emerge during economic downturns, when companies lack the money to paper over weak products. He contends that many firms, especially those with abundant funding, assume…
Marty Cagan argues that a layoff, though painful, can be turned into a valuable period for building product management skills and becoming a more desirable candidate. He briefly advises keeping professional social…
Marty Cagan argues that the title "Product Manager" means very different things across companies and industries, a symptom of how young high-tech product development still is. Rather than wait for standardized titles…
Marty Cagan argues that a manager has a large effect on whether a product manager is happy, and that good managers should check in weekly on whether the PM finds her work meaningful, is growing in her career, and has…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams should stop framing their work as gathering and documenting requirements, since most so-called requirements are really constraints. He proposes defining products along two…
Marty Cagan follows up on his earlier critique of 'process people' hijacking product ops. He notes that 'product ops' has no settled definition, and he has identified at least six different versions in his work with…
Marty Cagan argues that empowerment in product teams must be paired with accountability, and that how accountability applies depends on the ambition of the objective. A team that misses a bold "Moon Shot" goal is…
Marty Cagan walks through a fabricated three-week product discovery sprint to show what the fast, iterative rhythm of discovery actually looks like compared with linear, Waterfall-style processes. The team sets product…
Marty Cagan contrasts two ways of organizing product work: project-based feature teams that get reshuffled around a communal roadmap, and dedicated product teams that persist around a business area. He argues that…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams often use a predictable set of excuses to avoid doing real product discovery, and that these excuses usually reflect a misunderstanding of discovery rather than a genuine…
Marty Cagan answers common follow-up questions to his earlier argument that builders should distinguish between building to learn (product discovery) and building to earn (product delivery). He argues that as delivery…
Marty Cagan argues that product teams doing discovery often move far too slowly, risking wasted time and money on unvalidated ideas. He distinguishes time-boxing (fixed work period followed by reflection) from…
Marty Cagan argues that empowered product teams depend not on less leadership but on better leadership, and that moving to empowerment is far harder for product leaders than most expect. He splits the role into…
Marty Cagan argues that product management should not sit inside marketing or engineering, the two most common homes for it. Marketing tends to confuse listening to customers with product discovery and merges product…
Marty Cagan argues that a core failure in product planning is that weak projects, which should be killed during product discovery before reaching engineering, often are not. He identifies seven recurring reasons for…
Marty Cagan shares his 2024 product predictions in narrative form, framing each as a hope and a worry rather than a forecast, given his track record of overestimating how quickly change arrives. He covers ten recurring…
Marty Cagan argues that setting team objectives for a quarter is not enough; product teams must actively track and manage progress throughout the period. He explains that ongoing 'keep the lights on' work can crowd out…
Marty Cagan revisits the foundational product-management ideas he publicly argued for over the past two decades and identifies ten significant mistakes or blind spots. He concludes that his earlier emphasis on…
Marty Cagan, a longtime product leader, argues that Google, despite its strong performance and assets, is at risk over the long term for two reasons: weak conversion of product opportunities into finished, integrated…