Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

by Marty Cagan

The most striking thing we learned was that in so many companies—even companies trying to do true, technology‐powered products and services—product teams were too often not allowed to work the way they needed to. We realized that it's not just the techniques that strong product teams use to discover successful products, but that the differences between how great product companies work and the rest run much deeper. What we found in these companies was not pretty. The Role of Technology So many companies still have the old IT mindset when it comes to technology. It's viewed as a necessary cost rather than the core business enabler it needs to be. The people who work on the technology teams are literally there “to serve the business,” and the technology managers and leaders are there to facilitate serving the business. Or it's shoved off to the side in some “digital” business unit. The technology teams are disconnected from the real customers—in fact, they're encouraged to think of their stakeholders as their customers. Coaching There is little if any active coaching of the people on the technology teams. And even if they wanted to coach, the managers often don't have the experience themselves. So the problems perpetuate. Staffing Most of these companies recognize that they don't have the staff they need, but they have very misguided ideas about how to correct that, and what to look for in product staff. So again, the problems perpetuate. Product Vision These companies rarely...