Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

by Marty Cagan

Moreover, it's important to recognize that people learn in different ways, and you'll learn that by listening not talking.

It's not so much that people doubt the effectiveness, it's just that it can often be painful. And I've found that the people who need this technique the most are often the ones who resist it the most.

Normally, the product vision is somewhere between 3 years and 10 years out and describes the future we are trying to create, and why that future will improve the lives of our customers.

was told that, in order to do this, I'd need to “do my homework”—customers, data, business, and industry (a phrase I've repeated literally thousands of times).

Because the designer and engineers need someone on the team with this knowledge and context and this would be my direct contribution to solving the problems the team has been assigned.

Why? Because we need to be careful never to confuse output with outcome. Our customers care about results, not effort or activity.

I was told that the leaders of the company would be continuously judging me to decide if they felt I had done my homework, if I was thinking and acting like an owner, and if the product team was in good hands.

Because executives of companies with the empowered team model learn that the product manager is the canary in the coal mine.

Finally, as most product people have heard many times before, I was told that I'd have the responsibility to ensure success but not the authority to direct people. Why? Because innovation depends on true collaboration with design and engineering, which is a peer relationship and not a reporting relationship (there are other reasons as well, but that's for another chapter).

If I had to boil it all down, I'd say that thinking like an owner versus thinking like an employee is primarily about taking responsibility for the outcome rather than just the activities.

This means working with designers and engineers to come up with solutions that are valuable, usable, feasible, and viable. That is product discovery, and that is what takes on the order of four solid hours a day.

Of course, the project management work doesn't go away. Which is why my favorite answer to this problem is for the product manager to team up with a delivery manager who can take on the project management, so the product manager can actually focus on her job.

The very act of creating and discussing prototypes and story maps facilitates true collaboration.

The second situation is arrogance. If the product manager believes the solution she already has in mind is clearly the best, even if she is right, collaboration is stifled, and she probably now has a team of mercenaries rather than missionaries.

Everyone's job becomes more enjoyable when they're working with people they care about.

But I interpret this signal very differently. It is my mind warning me of the consequences if I don't do my homework and truly prepare. The fear of looking clueless is what keeps me up late preparing, studying, thinking, writing, rehearsing, and iterating.

Whether you're a product person or a product leader, there's no reason to be an imposter. Listen to your mind warning you of the consequences of not preparing, seek out people you trust to give you honest and expert feedback, and iterate until they are satisfied that you are truly adding value.

The true test of customer‐centricity is how the product person handles difficult or especially stressful decisions. When a customer is at a standstill (often referred to as a “showstopper”) because of some problem with our product, how does the product person respond? Is it business as usual? Or is the product person ensuring a sense of urgency (not panic) and leading by example to come up with an effective solution?

They might be very supportive of the concept of empowered teams, but if you make them choose between empowered teams and taking care of customers, you probably won't like what they decide.

Even if the leader is self‐aware, has the personal courage to make the necessary changes, and has agreed to rules of engagement, it's no secret that long‐held habits can be very hard to break. Especially habits and behaviors that get to the very core of someone's identity and feelings of self‐worth.

I'll go further and suggest that skill in staffing is one of the most important and telling leading indicators for a company's success.

These should be people that a strong candidate would be proud to work with and would also enjoy getting a beer with.

But go beyond a reference check. One of the surest ways today to spot toxic personalities is to explore the candidate's behavior on social media. Find their profiles and look at how they interact with others.1 Do they have thoughtful, respectful interactions or do they assume the worst and respond before thinking?

The real challenge of remote employees is when we consider the discovery work.

Instead of the three sitting down together to discuss the question “How do we solve this problem?” there is a nearly gravity‐like pull to start producing artifacts for one another. The product designer asks the product manager to write down some type of “brief” or requirements or constraints.

Very soon, the new remote work process has reverted back to waterfall‐like passing along of artifacts. And not only will innovation suffer, but the entire discussion will quickly move back to output rather than outcome.

This is where coaching is so essential. In my experience, most people don't intend to be cruel or insensitive, they just don't have as many social cues to go on. A good manager can coach the employee on her online interactions with the rest of the team and help her realize where she can improve.

I started the program 10 years ago when I was a head of product and in charge of hiring and equipping the key product hires. I had seen a series of failed product people within the organization, and I realized that these hires had been completely capable for the job. But there was something missing between their capability and their success in the organization.

They participate in exercises on communication, personality tests, personal skills, and build a career growth path for themselves. This focus on their own personal growth shows these new employees that we, the company, care about who they are and their growth. It also follows the principle of “put on your own oxygen mask before assisting other passengers.” If we train our leaders to be healthy, the people who report to them have a better chance, too.

Whenever I have learned of this happening to one of the managers that worked for me, I considered it a serious performance problem of the manager and treated it as such. Usually this meant that I wanted to see the preparation notes for the weekly 1:1 going forward, and that I would also be discussing the performance issues with the employee directly (to ensure the feedback is making it to her).

There is a very old, very firm rule in directing: no line readings. A line reading is when the director says the actor's lines to her in the hopes of getting the actor to mimic them. This is a huge no‐no and implies that either the director isn't skilled enough to get the performance she wants out of the actor, or that the best the actor has to offer is her ability to mimic the director. This is a limited example, but imagine if everyone on the cast and crew was limited by the best the director could do. It'd be a pretty weak show.

Too often, team topology happens organically by following the path of least resistance. It may mirror an existing organizational chart or engineering skill set grouping, or it may track with the operational responsibilities of some business owner or stakeholder.

By contrast, a team that sees itself as responsible for a meaningful problem is inspired by their connection to the larger cause. They have more pride of ownership.

Occasionally, however, the company has a design leader who prefers a different model, referred to as the internal agency model. In this case, the design leader has a service team of designers, and the product teams need to make requests of this design team to get designs produced for their products.

The design manager can ensure a holistic view of design by establishing design standards, guidelines, and design systems; reviewing the work of the designers; and also by conducting design strategy and review sessions with the broader group of product designers.

The famous computer scientist Melvin Conway coined an adage that is often referred to as Conway's Law. It states that any organization that designs a system will produce a design whose structure mirrors the organization's structure.

beware of shipping your org chart.

With that said, there will still be times where the required topology changes are more significant. Just be careful about changing things too frequently.

If you're consistently making major changes to the team topology more than once a year, it is a sign that something is wrong. Topology

determines who people work with on a daily basis, what they are working on, and the nature of your interactions. When it changes, it ...

These moves are hard on the person moving as they must adjust to a new team and new work. It's also hard on the team that was left behind as they are often forced to find a way to fill the void.

Every company is different, and I begin by talking to people from all across the organization, and listening to what they have to say, and what people think I might be able to do to improve the situation. Also, it's important that I observe interactions in organizational meetings as well as the systems and artifacts of those to understand the company's unique people dynamics and process challenges.

Despite best intentions, upon close examination, often organizations that are scaling quickly or currently struggling have no real focus and no real product strategy. Trying to do too many things at once will damage even the best engineering organizations.

I need to work with the engineers to understand that when they make a promise or commitment, it is important they deliver on that promise.

This involves coaching the executives to be smart about when they really need a date, and coaching the engineers on how to assess the work and take the obligation to deliver very seriously.

That may mean building feasibility prototypes, or it may mean having some engineers take time to learn or flesh something out. Whatever the approach, they need to be able to reasonably predict dates—when those dates are truly needed—with high confidence.

Second, once the engineers have made this commitment, they need to take this commitment very seriously and deliver. This “do what you say you're going to do” mentality is hopefully true for each person and team within a company. Regardless, engineering needs to become known

Over time, teams get a better understanding of what this ongoing cost is. In some cases, this ongoing work can reach the point that it consumes the team, in which case the leaders will need to potentially grow the team, or else not expect anything beyond this overhead work,

Should the team focus on low‐risk but low‐reward “sure things,” or should they strive for more substantial and dramatic improvements?

They're making bets primarily on the people, but also on new enabling technologies, changing market conditions and customer behaviors, and the strength of the insights behind the product strategy.