Lenny Rachitsky profiles how Linear, the project-management tool, builds its product, based on an interview with CEO Karri Saarinen. The post's core argument is that a small, craft-focused setup works well: no dedicated…
“[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!yFro!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9433a380-7255-4054-acb7-afae7b3d11653103x1813.png) Tips for new employees, painted on the walls during a hackathon. Mural: Andrea Nguyen, Jeany Ngo, Katie Chen In 2012, shortly after Airbnb acquired our startup, I overheard co-founder Joe Gebbia giving…”
John Cutler's essay uses the image of a border collie, a dog bred to be intensely focused and productive, to examine the trade-offs organizations make when they optimize hard for a single drive or output. The argument…
Marty Cagan argues that splitting product work across teams is one of the hardest and most recurring organizational questions once a company outgrows its earliest stage, and that there is no quick general answer. He…
Marty Cagan revisits the distinction between product teams and project teams, which he says he should have written about sooner, after hoping the problem had faded. A product team is durable and owns an outcome over one…
Teresa Torres and community members explore how organizations moving from functional or platform teams (back-end, web, mobile) to cross-functional, value-driven product teams can make the transition. Functional…
Cagan argues that a fairly standard organizational structure has emerged for product organizations, and that its shape affects behavior even though role definitions matter more. He contends that a CEO/COO or division GM…
Lenny Rachitsky interviews Johnny Ho, co-founder and head of product at Perplexity, about how a fast-growing AI search company builds product with a very small team. Perplexity uses AI to answer its own operational…
Marty Cagan argues that most companies fail to get results from product teams not because teams lack discovery skills, but because they are not truly empowered. He contrasts teams that serve the business with strong…
An interview-based deep dive into how Ramp's product org works, centered on a culture of velocity: planning only as far out as needed, anchoring strategy to the financial model, organizing teams around business…
Marty Cagan argues that established companies often lose their capacity for continuous innovation, and that a deeper root cause than the usual focus on scale and execution is an "IT mindset" applied to product work. He…
Marty Cagan addresses the common question of how organizations move from feature teams to empowered product teams. He argues that Agile delivery methods alone are insufficient and that transformation depends first on…
Teresa Torres profiles how Botify, a B2B SaaS company, gradually moved from siloed roles to product trios (PM, designer, tech lead) starting in 2019. The shift was driven by its Chief Product Officer and several team…
Lea Hickman and Marty Cagan argue that many company transformations to empowered product teams fail because key conditions are missing. They present ten keys, spanning senior leadership support, reframing technology as…
Marty Cagan argues that most digital transformations fail, and draws on two decades of hands-on work helping companies adopt the product operating model to name the root causes. He lists ten recurring mistakes, ranging…
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 responds to readers stuck in IT-mindset organizations who ask whether they can change their company or must leave for a startup. He argues that established companies can still produce disruptive innovation…
Marty Cagan argues that while empowered, cross-functional product teams have become the norm and boost motivation and ownership, teams often feel constrained by shared foundations. He frames the core tension as a…
John Cutler questions the usefulness of personality and strength tests in the workplace. He notes they make for entertaining conversation and can feel uncannily accurate, but seldom improve everyday collaboration. He…
Marty Cagan argues that many companies undertaking a transformation to the product model make the ironic mistake of managing that transformation as a conventional big project, with program managers, Gantt-style plans…
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion argue that a common mistake in organizational transformation, such as shifting to outcome-driven teams or a product operating model, is training everyone at once. Such broad mandates rarely…