Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
by Marty Cagan
At the core, I see three critically important differences between the strongest product companies and the rest: The first is how the company views the role of technology. The second is the role their product leaders play. The third is how the company views the purpose of the product teams—the product managers, product designers, and engineers. Great product marketing requires understanding the market first. It pressure‐tests assumptions based on what the market tells you so you can adapt, position, and market into customers' true reality. It makes clear why your product matters and should be loved using customers' language, experience, and needs.
At the core, I see three critically important differences between the strongest product companies and the rest: The first is how the company views the role of technology. The second is the role their product leaders play. The third is how the company views the purpose of the product teams—the product managers, product designers, and engineers.
Great product marketing requires understanding the market first. It pressure‐tests assumptions based on what the market tells you so you can adapt, position, and market into customers' true reality. It makes clear why your product matters and should be loved using customers' language, experience, and needs.
In contrast, in strong product companies, teams are instead given problems to solve, rather than features to build, and most important, they are empowered to solve those problems in the best way they see fit. And they are then held accountable to the results.
When I coach product managers on competitive analysis, I like to ask the PM to evaluate the top three to five players in the space and to write up a narrative comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of each player—highlighting opportunities.
It comes down to the views they have on the role of technology, the purpose of the people who work on the technology, and how they expect these people to work together to solve problems.
"At the core, I see three critically important differences between the strongest product companies and the rest: The first is how the company views the role of technology. The second is the role their product leaders play. The third is how the company views the purpose of the product teams—the product managers, product designers, and engineers."
"Great product marketing requires understanding the market first. It pressure‐tests assumptions based on what the market tells you so you can adapt, position, and market into customers' true reality. It makes clear why your product matters and should be loved using customers' language, experience, and needs."
"In contrast, in strong product companies, teams are instead given problems to solve, rather than features to build, and most important, they are empowered to solve those problems in the best way they see fit. And they are then held accountable to the results."
"When I coach product managers on competitive analysis, I like to ask the PM to evaluate the top three to five players in the space and to write up a narrative comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of each player—highlighting opportunities."
"It comes down to the views they have on the role of technology, the purpose of the people who work on the technology, and how they expect these people to work together to solve problems."
"Leadership is about recognizing that there's a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge."
"If you want to have truly empowered product teams, then your success depends very directly on these first‐level people managers."
- →When I coach product managers on competitive analysis, I like to ask the PM to evaluate the top three to five players in the space and to write up a narrative comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of each player—highlighting opportunities.
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