Articles by Marty Cagan
Developing Strong Product ManagersMarty provides a framework for how to assess the skills of a PM on your team, how to identify gaps, and then how to construct a coaching plan.
The Role of Domain ExperienceMarty provides his opinion on whether domain knowledge is a necessary qualification for product managers. The rationale provided in the article also applies to roles in other departments.
- Discovery – Problem vs. Solution
Marty argues that you need to spend as much, or more time on defining a solution than on mapping out a problem space, because "the vast majority of product efforts fail not because of demand, but because they can’t come up with a solution good enough to get people to switch." He then argues that defining solutions needs to be a collaborative process between product, design, and engineering.
- Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy
Marty explains the difference between a business strategy and product strategy, why it's important to understand your company's business strategy before developing a product strategy, and how to map them together.
- Stakeholder Management
Marty provides an end-to-end breakdown of stakeholder management, with various tips, such as when to engage stakeholders in discovery and solution previews, and how much time to spend with stakeholders per week.
- Discovery – Learning vs. Insights
Marty does a great job of orienting us around the goal of customer research. The goal is not just to learn for the sake of learning, but to find insights - something that helps solve a meaningful problem for a customer, in a way that works for the business as well.
