Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

by Marty Cagan

Worst of all, the teams are not empowered to solve problems in ways customers love, yet work for the business. And as such, the teams can't be held accountable to results.

Finally, if you think that by moving to Agile you've already done some form of digital transformation, I am sorry to tell you, but you haven't even gotten started

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.

Fundamentally, they don't really consider themselves in the technology business. Instead, they think of themselves as in the insurance business, or the banking business, or the transportation business, or whatever. Certainly, they need some technology to operate, but it's viewed as a subservient role to “the business.”

But even if they aren't explicit about it, the different parts of “the business” end up driving what is actually built by the product teams.

enabling technology

In contrast, in strong product companies, the product leaders are among the most impactful leaders in the company.

Empowered product teams depend on skilled product managers, product designers, and engineers, and it is the leaders and managers who are responsible for recruiting, hiring, and coaching these people.

(value, viability, usability, and feasibility).

“We need teams of missionaries, not teams of mercenaries.”

The larger the organization, the more essential it is to be very good at evangelism, and it's important for the leaders to understand that evangelism is something that is never “done.” It needs to be a constant.

Note that it is not a problem if the person you hire has different views on what might work to get us to mass‐market electric cars, but it is not helpful, for example, to hire a passionate advocate for internal combustion engines.

If you want to have truly empowered product teams, then your success depends very directly on these first‐level people managers.

It is important that these managers understand—and can effectively communicate—the product vision, principles, and product strategy from the senior leaders.

them. It does mean understanding their weaknesses and helping them to improve, providing guidance on lessons learned, removing obstacles, and what is loosely referred to as “connecting the dots.”

More generally, every member of a product team deserves to have someone who is committed to helping them get better at their craft.

This is also where empowerment becomes real and not just a buzzword. The team is given a small number of significant problems to solve (the team objectives).

The managers may need to iterate with their teams and others to try and get as much coverage as possible of the broader organization's objectives.

The litmus test for empowerment is that the team is able to decide the best way to solve the problems they have been assigned (the objectives).

It takes strong managers to be self‐confident and secure enough to truly empower the people that work for them, and to stand back and let th...

The leaders don't trust the teams. Specifically, they don't believe they have the level of people on their teams they need to truly empower them. So, along with the other key business leaders from across the company, they believe they need to very explicitly direct the teams themselves. This is also known as the “command‐and‐control” model of management.

You should measure your own job performance on the successes of your team members, even more than the success of your products.

You must step back to create this space, while stepping in to remove impediments, clarify context, and provide guidance.

Remember that we need teams of missionaries, not teams of mercenaries.

Be aware of your insecurities and understand how your behavior can interfere with empowering your team.

Note that I'm not suggesting you encourage consensus of opinion within your team. Rather, as a manager, you are helping your team learn how to make good decisions collaboratively—leveraging the skills and expertise of each person.

Many, if not most, people are not aware of their own potential. As a coach, you are in a unique position to help them see it.

adversity. As a coach, you are always looking for opportunities that encourage your people to stretch beyond their comfort zone. Use judgment to right‐size the opportunity for the person and development area.

It's through pushing through the discomfort that people overcome their fears and realize what they're truly capable of.

Reaching potential doesn't just mean addressing gaps in competence. It also means recognizing and developing inherent strengths.

Trust also comes from expressing a genuine interest in the person as a person, and not just a member of the team.

That said, I've always found that trust grows whenever a working relationship is humanized.

Empowered product teams depend on competent product people, and if you don't develop your people and provide growth opportunities, there are usually other companies that will.

You may have to comply with your HR department's requirements in terms of annual reviews, but just realize that these are in no way an adequate substitute for active, ongoing, engaged coaching and development of each team member's skills.

However, it's important for the product manager to understand the delivery techniques that are being used (e.g., continuous delivery), and in some cases—such as release planning—to take a more active role.

When I sit down with a product team to talk about a problem they're trying to solve, I rarely spend time with just the PM. Almost always, it is with the PM, the product designer, and the tech lead.

if I've observed something, I often pull the PM aside and try to point out how her interactions during that meeting either helped or hurt her efforts to build trust.

Are they spending too much time talking (e.g., planning) and not enough time trying (e.g., prototyping)? How are they resolving differences of opinion?

For the PM, that starts with putting in the time and effort to understand what each of the stakeholder's constraints are. We discussed this under Business and Company Knowledge above.

And in any case, whenever she identifies something that might be of concern, she will preview those solutions with that stakeholder before the team builds anything.

Beyond this, I encourage all product managers to become lifelong students of leadership. Most of us know people we consider terrible leaders. Some of us are lucky enough to know people we consider exceptionally strong leaders. Discussing the defining characteristics of each makes for excellent coaching discussions.

Tech leads bring deep knowledge of the enabling technologies, and when that knowledge is combined with a direct understanding of the customer's pain and problems, magic can result.

A surprising percentage of the tech leads I've coached have told me that, ultimately, they would like to one day start a company of their own.

When this is their goal, I often encourage the tech lead to consider the product management role for a year or two.

I always encourage tech leads to visit as many customers as they can. But I also try to make a point—after visiting an interesting customer myself—to stop by and chat with the tech leads about what I saw and learned, and what they might think about that.

The bottom line is I have found that every single minute you invest in coaching a tech lead on either customers or business context will be among the best possible uses of your time.

What does homework really mean? For a product manager, it means learning the product inside and out. Learning about the users and customers. Learning the data. Learning the capabilities of the enabling technologies. Learning the industry. Learning the various dimensions of the business, especially financial, sales, go‐to‐market, service, and legal.

What does it mean to act like a product person? Listening. Collaborating. Shared learning. Evangelizing. Inspiring. Giving credit and accepting blame. Taking responsibility. Knowing what you can't know and admitting what you don't know. Demonstrating humility. Building relationships across the company. Getting to know customers on a personal level. Leading.

It is your job to point out these potential areas of conflict or impact and encourage the product person to collaborate with the relevant colleagues to resolve, and if necessary, for you to make a decision to remove the conflict.

The best product leaders measure their success in how many people they've helped earn promotions, or have moved on to serve on increasingly impactful products, or to become leaders of the company, or even to start their own companies.