Marty Cagan, SVPG - Product Discovery, Product Strategy & Empowered Product Teams - Product Faculty

Empowered Product Teams

In this section, Marty Kagan talks about the importance of empowered product teams and how coaching can help normal talents become successful in such teams. He also discusses why some companies struggle to work like Google, Amazon, Apple, or Netflix.

Importance of Coaching for Empowered Product Teams

• Coaching is essential for empowering product teams.

• Managers take coaching seriously at Google and other successful companies.

• The reason people do good work at these companies is that they have someone showing them how it's done.

Examples of Normal Talents Becoming Successful in Empowered Product Teams

• Marty Kagan has examples of normal talents becoming successful in empowered product teams at Google.

• Coaching plays a significant role in helping normal talents become successful in empowered product teams.

Why Some Companies Struggle to Work Like Successful Companies

• Many companies struggle to work like Google, Amazon, Apple, or Netflix because they think they cannot get the same caliber people as these companies.

• The real question is what these successful companies do once they get there.

Communication Challenges in Remote Work

In this section, the speaker discusses the communication challenges that arise when working remotely. They explain how remote work can lead to a shift from collaboration to an artifact exchange model, which can negatively impact innovation. The speaker also highlights issues with interrupted time and misinterpretation of messages due to lack of face-to-face interaction.

Communication Challenges

• When working remotely, there is a shift from collaboration to an artifact exchange model.

• This shift can lead to issues with innovation and productivity.

• Interrupted time and misinterpretation of messages due to lack of face-to-face interaction are common challenges in remote work.

User Research During COVID-19

In this section, the speaker discusses whether or not companies should be conducting user research during COVID-19. They reference an article by Audrey Crain that argues that now is one of the best times for user research due to heightened emotions and changes in behavior.

Conducting User Research During COVID-19

• Audrey Crain argues that now is one of the best times for user research due to heightened emotions and changes in behavior.

• Some companies may not have a dedicated user research team, so product managers may need to learn how to conduct user research themselves.

English Importance of Having a Product Designer on Staff

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a product designer on staff who is trained in service design, interaction design, visual design, and user research.

Trained Product Designers are Essential for User Research

• Researchers can get insights faster and more reliably with a trained product designer.

• A real product manager should not have to learn these skills or do these things.

• If you're a feature team as opposed to a product team, then the product manager probably doesn't have much to do and might be hungry for something useful.

English The Value of Insights from Product Designers

In this section, the speaker discusses how valuable insights from product designers can be when conducting contextual inquiry studies.

Product Designers Notice More Depth in Studies

• The level of depth that they're able to pick up is impressive.

• They are also much more savvy about how they phrase questions and frame issues.

English Running Iterations in Discovery

In this section, the speaker talks about running iterations in discovery and explains what an iteration is.

10-30 Iterations per Week in Discovery

• Somewhere between ten and thirty iterations per week in Discovery is ideal.

• Each iteration should try at least one thing new.

• Roughly 90% of prototypes are created by your product designer.

English Vanity KPI: 50 Iterations per Week

In this section, the speaker cautions against using vanity KPI's like 50 iterations per week as a measure of success.

Vanity KPI's are Not Business Results

• The idea of 50 iterations per week is a vanity KPI.

• Encourage teams to get good at this because they can try more ideas and approaches.

• Several teams think that because they can do 50 iterations per week, they are successful, but that's not true.

English Core Things a Product Manager Should Know

In this section, the speaker discusses some of the core things that a product manager should know.

Key Things for Product Managers to Know

• Understand your market and customers.

• Have a clear product vision and strategy.

• Be able to prioritize features and requirements.

• Work effectively with cross-functional teams.

Understanding Product Growth and Marketing

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of product growth and marketing in today's market. They also touch on the role of product managers and product marketing.

The Importance of Product Growth

• There is a sheer volume of products out there, but not all of them are getting used.

• It's becoming harder to differentiate your product and get noticed.

• The emergence of the growth role means that the product manager should have some capabilities in understanding product growth.

The Role of Product Marketing

• Product marketing is responsible for go-to-market strategy.

• Virtually every category today has dozens if not hundreds of players, so it's important to make sure that you're heard.

• Without a good product, it's hard to do marketing. Start with a good product that retains and engages people, then worry about marketing.

Simple Strategies for Successful Products

In this section, the speaker discusses simple strategies for successful products and why some companies fail despite having smart people on their teams.

Simple Strategies for Successful Products

• Think about what the major factor is: your market size, your go-to-market strategy, as well as time to market (GTM and TTM).

• Apply simple TAM (total addressable market). Who's going to buy your $450 home pod?

Why Do Some Companies Fail?

• We need more information about Apple's vision and product strategy to know if they would consider AirPod HomePod a failure or not.

Product Vision and Strategy

In this section, Marty Cagan talks about the importance of having a well-thought-out data-driven product strategy. He also explains that optimization is still valuable but breakthroughs come from discovery.

Importance of Product Strategy

• A good product strategy is often the difference between great companies and the rest.

• There are many product strategies out there, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Optimization vs Discovery

• Optimization is still valuable as soon as you have something live with real traffic.

• Companies should not only focus on optimization because it leads to diminishing returns.

• Breakthroughs come from discovery, which involves taking risks.

Empowered Product Teams

In this section, Marty Cagan describes three types of teams: delivery teams, feature teams, and empowered product teams. He explains that empowered product teams are the most effective type of team for tech product companies.

Types of Teams

• Delivery teams are backlog administrators who crank out code. They are prevalent in non-sophisticated companies.

• Feature teams look like empowered product teams superficially but they are given a roadmap for features and projects for the quarter.

• Empowered product teams have a clear mission and vision. They own their roadmap and make decisions based on customer needs.

Characteristics of Empowered Product Teams

• Clear mission and vision

• Own their roadmap

• Make decisions based on customer needs

• Have cross-functional skills

Empowered Product Teams

In this section, the speaker discusses the difference between feature teams and product teams. He explains that empowered product teams are given problems to solve, while feature teams are given a roadmap of features to build.

Feature Teams vs. Product Teams

• Feature teams focus on outputting features, while product teams focus on solving customer and business problems.

• Feature teams are given a roadmap of features to build, while product teams are given problems to solve.

• If a feature built by a feature team doesn't work, it's not their fault because they were just building what an executive told them to build.

• A feature team requires project management rather than product management.

Empowered Product Teams

• In an empowered product team, the product manager is responsible for making sure that what is built is valuable and viable for the business.

• Empowered product teams have designers and engineers to help make sure the solution is usable and feasible.

• Google has empowered product teams with an eight-step process for hiring people who can solve customer and business problems.

• Normal talent can be coached into becoming part of an empowered product team at Google or other companies.

• Coaching is important in helping new hires learn how to do their job well in an empowered product team environment.

Coaching in Empowered Product Teams

In this section, the speaker talks about coaching in empowered product teams. He explains that coaching is essential for new hires who may not have experience working in an empowered environment.

Coaching in Empowered Product Teams

• Managers take coaching seriously in empowered product teams.

• Many people struggle in their job as a product manager because there is nobody at their company who knows how to do the job well and can spend time with them to show them how.

• Coaching is important for new hires who may not have experience working in an empowered environment.

Hiring for Success in Product Management

In this section, the speaker discusses how to hire successful product managers and what competencies to look for. He also talks about hiring high potential people with no experience and investing heavily in their development.

Hiring Competencies

• Look for competencies that are necessary for success in product management.

• Conduct a gap analysis to determine where coaching is needed.

• Invest heavily in developing high potential people with no experience.

Associate Product Manager Program

• The APM program identifies high potential people and puts them through an intense coaching program.

• Companies that don't adopt the empowered team model risk dying because they stop innovating.

• Death may take 20 years, but it's happening because competition is inevitable.

Overall, the speaker emphasizes the importance of hiring competent product managers and investing heavily in their development. He also highlights the value of identifying high potential individuals and putting them through an intense coaching program like Google's APM program. Finally, he warns that companies that don't adopt the empowered team model risk dying due to lack of innovation.

Roadmaps and Product Vision

In this section, the speaker discusses the clash between B2B enterprise companies and their customers regarding roadmaps. The speaker argues that while it is reasonable for customers to want to know where a company is heading before investing, a roadmap may not be the best way to provide that information. Instead, the speaker suggests sharing the product vision with customers.

Importance of Product Vision

• Customers want to know where a company is heading before investing.

• A product vision is more important than a roadmap because it shows customers what they are buying into.

• Sharing the product vision helps validate it and ensures that it aligns with customer needs.

Flexibility in Details

• Being stubborn on your vision but flexible on details can help avoid committing to features that may not work or are no longer needed.

• Sharing a roadmap can limit flexibility in details because of commitments made.

Skills Needed for Product Managers

In this section, the speaker discusses how assessing individual strengths and weaknesses is crucial when coaching product managers. There is no one-size-fits-all answer as everyone brings different strengths to the table.

Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses

• Assessing individual strengths and weaknesses is crucial when coaching product managers.

• Different people bring different strengths to the table, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

The Importance of Empowered Engineers in Product Teams

In this section, Marty Cagan discusses the importance of empowered engineers in product teams and how they are essential for innovation.

Empowered Engineers

• The most important element of a real product team is the notion of an empowered engineer.

• Empowered engineers are given problems to solve and can figure out the best way to solve them.

• Every single innovation has an empowered engineer behind it.

• Feature teams almost never innovate because their engineers are not empowered.

Conclusion and Next Steps

In this section, the hosts wrap up the discussion with Marty Cagan and announce next week's guest. They also provide information on how to network with other attendees and give feedback.

Wrap Up

• Thank you to Marty Cagan for sharing his insights on product management.

• Next week's guest will be Theresa Torres.

• Attendees can network with each other by going to the networking tab and connecting with others.

• Feedback is appreciated, and attendees will receive an email requesting it.