Ever wanted to know the secrets to successful product management? Especially why technology products like Netflix, Amazon and Google do so well and have so much love from customers?
It’s something that Marty Cagan, author and founder of Silicon Valley Product Group, set out to answer in his book Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love.
The thought leader for technology product management drew from his own experiences working on product teams at eBay, Netscape and Hewlett-Packard, amongst others during an illustrious career. And in the book, Marty also delves deep into case studies that illustrate just how important the product manager was to the creation of some highly successful digital products.
As the second edition of the highly popular Inspired is published, we caught up with Marty to find out more.
Inspired is about how the best tech companies create products that earn the love of billions of people around the world (e.g. Amazon, Netflix, Google) and the tremendous difference between how they do it and how the vast majority of technology companies do it. It’s a big question but, in broad strokes, how do they do it so well and others don’t?
Strong tech product companies know that they need to ensure consistent product innovation. And many large enterprise companies are too invested in protecting a product that was successful years ago. Are there any examples of the latter that you think really bring this home?
The first edition of Inspired was hugely successful when it was published in 2008. When revisiting the book for a second edition, you thought you’d only need to modify 10-20 per cent of the content but realised it needed a complete rewrite. Why?
You quote in the book the famous Silicon Valley venture capitalist who says of the product team, “We need teams of missionaries, not teams of mercenaries”. Why is this important, in your opinion?
You had a lightbulb moment when working as a software engineer on a high profile product at Hewlett Packard in the 1980s – and it’s a real lesson for product teams. Can you explain that moment?
You write that a product manager needs to be amongst the strongest talent in a company and that it’s a tremendously difficult job with some very challenging responsibilities. What kind of skills do you think it takes to be a successful product manager?
You talk about what happens when some of the product team are brought into the process too late to really get full value from them, including UX designers and software engineering/development. What are some of the key things that are affected when this happens?
User research is vital for product discovery. You say the key to tapping into the value of user research is that any learning must be shared learning. Basically the product team needs to witness user research insights first hand rather than reading a report after the fact. Why is this important, do you think?
Do you think UX-ers make good product managers? What do they need to watch out for when they jump into the product manager role?
Product managers need people skills to bring projects and teams together. You use a few real life examples in the book to show this including Jane Manning of Google who was product manager for the launch of Google Adwords in 2000. What was it about her experience that shows this people managing skill?
Inspired – How To Create Tech Products Customers Love is published by Wiley.