Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

by Marty Cagan

in strong product companies, technology is not an expense, it is the business. Technology enables and powers the products and services we provide to our customers. Technology allows us to solve problems for our customers in ways that are just now possible.

The product strategy describes how we plan to accomplish the product vision, while meeting the needs of the business as we go. The strategy derives from focus, then leverages insights, converts these insights into action, and finally manages the work through to completion.

Coaching is no longer a specialty; you cannot be a good manager without being a good coach. —Bill Campbell

Coaching is what turns ordinary people into extraordinary product teams.

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.

thinking like an owner versus thinking like an employee is primarily about taking responsibility for the outcome rather than just the activities.

if you can't manage to clear four hours a day during your workday, then I only know of two possibilities: either you extend your workday, or you fail to deliver results and so you fail at your job.

Why is thinking so important? Because at its core, product teams are all about problem solving.

I look at all the people who've worked for me or who I've helped in some way, he would say, and I count up how many are great leaders now. That's how I measure success.

Let me be clear on this: the best product companies hire competent people of character, and then coach and develop them into members of extraordinary teams.

Trust is a function of two things: competence and character.

“A's hire A's, but B's hire C's.”

the hiring manager needs to take responsibility for the interview effectiveness of the interview team, and the interview experience for the candidate.

That said, it is absolutely critical that the hiring manager understand that the annual performance review should never be the primary feedback tool. If it is, then in my opinion you have utterly failed as a manager.

“Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders.”

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. Another way to say this is to beware of shipping your org chart.

if you temporarily move someone to another team to deal with an urgent priority. 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.

You can't take your old organization based on feature teams, roadmaps, and passive managers, then overlay a technique from a radically different culture and expect that will work or change anything.