📖 Inspired by Marty Cagan, BOOK REVIEW | How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Summary

In this review, Juan discusses Marty Cagan's book 'Inspired,' which is a guide for creating tech products that customers love. The book is particularly useful for product managers and those interested in problem management. Key topics include product discovery, building the right product, product team dynamics, and fostering a product culture. Cagan emphasizes the importance of continuous product discovery, working with diverse teams, and the challenges inherent in product management. The book serves as a guide to understanding modern product management principles and practices.

Takeaways

• 📚 The book 'Inspired' by Marty Cagan is a guide for creating tech products that customers love, particularly useful for product managers.
• 🔍 It emphasizes the importance of product discovery, focusing on building the right product by understanding customer needs and validating assumptions through various testing methods.
• 💡 The book discusses the necessity of continuous product discovery and testing with potential customers to gather feedback and refine product ideas.
• 👥 It highlights the composition and role of product teams, stressing the importance of cross-functional collaboration for end-to-end product development.
• 🛠 The script mentions the significance of aligning product teams with company vision and strategy, while allowing them autonomy to make decisions and drive product direction.
• 🍕 The concept of 'two-pizza teams' is introduced, suggesting optimal team size for effective communication and decision-making.
• 🌟 The importance of product culture is underscored, with the need for trust, empowerment, and innovation to foster successful product development.
• 🚀 Marty Cagan advocates for 'missionaries' over 'mercenaries' in product teams, seeking individuals committed to the product's success rather than just task completion.
• 📈 Being data-driven is a key theme, with product managers encouraged to leverage data for decision-making, validating assumptions, and understanding product adoption and market potential.
• 🤔 The script acknowledges the difficulty of product management, noting that even with the right steps, success is not guaranteed, and failures are part of the process.
• 🔄 It calls for a culture of innovation within companies, constantly challenging and improving practices, including agile methodologies and design thinking.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Marty Cagan's book 'Inspired'?

The book 'Inspired' focuses on how to create tech products that customers love, covering topics relevant to product managers and those interested in problem management.

Why is product discovery emphasized in the book?

Product discovery is emphasized because it is crucial to build the right product. The book discusses the importance of finding the right problem to solve and validating assumptions with potential customers through prototyping, testing, and validation.

What does Marty Cagan suggest about the composition of product teams?

Marty Cagan suggests that product teams should consist of individuals who can deliver a product end-to-end, including product managers, designers, engineers, and potentially data scientists and marketing managers, working together to ensure the product meets user needs and is feasible.

How does the book address the role of a product manager within a team?

The book highlights the role of a product manager as a key figure in identifying problems and finding solutions, working collaboratively with team members such as designers and engineers to create products that users love.

What is the significance of the 'two pizza team' concept mentioned in the book?

The 'two pizza team' concept refers to the optimal size for a product team, suggesting that a team should be small enough to be fed with two pizzas, implying that smaller, more agile teams can own and manage the product development process more effectively.

How does Marty Cagan view the importance of product culture in a company?

Marty Cagan views product culture as vital for success, emphasizing the need for a culture that trusts and enables product teams to take ownership and drive the products they are building.

What type of people does the book suggest should be part of product teams?

The book suggests that product teams should consist of 'missionaries'—people who are passionate and committed to spreading the word about the product they are building, rather than 'mercenaries' who may lack long-term commitment.

Why is innovation within a company's product culture important according to the book?

Innovation within a company's product culture is important as it allows for constant challenging of existing ways of working, adaptation to changing technologies, and the implementation of new practices that can lead to building more successful products.

How does the book discuss the use of data in product management?

The book discusses the use of data in product management as a critical tool for making informed decisions, validating assumptions, understanding product adoption, and gauging market potential.

What challenges does Marty Cagan acknowledge in the product management process?

Marty Cagan acknowledges that product management is inherently difficult, with challenges in execution, design, and getting the product right, even when following correct steps, and that failure is a common outcome for both startups and established companies.

What is the book's stance on being the ultimate guide for product managers?

The book does not claim to be the ultimate guide for product managers but rather aims to guide readers in understanding product management principles and practices in modern companies, encouraging them to improve their approach.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to 'Inspired' by Marty Cagan

Juan introduces a review of Marty Cagan's book 'Inspired', which focuses on creating tech products that customers love. He clarifies that he will not provide a full summary but will discuss key topics and his thoughts on them. The book is aimed at product managers and entrepreneurs, especially in the tech industry, but its principles are broadly applicable with necessary adjustments for different industries. The main theme revolves around the importance of product discovery, emphasizing the difficulty of identifying the right product and solution, and the need for continuous testing and validation with potential customers to refine ideas and quickly discard bad ones.

05:00

👥 The Dynamics of Product Teams

This paragraph delves into the composition and role of product teams, which are responsible for delivering end-to-end products. Juan discusses the importance of having a cross-functional team including product managers, designers, and engineers, and the significance of each team member's contribution. The teams should have ownership and be empowered to make decisions aligned with the company's vision. The concept of 'two-pizza teams' is mentioned, highlighting the optimal size for effective teamwork. Additionally, the paragraph touches on the necessity for a supportive company culture that trusts and enables product teams to innovate and take responsibility for their work.

10:02

🌟 Building a Product Culture and the Role of Product Managers

Juan highlights the critical role of product culture in a company's success, emphasizing trust and empowerment as key elements. Marty Cagan discusses the importance of having a culture of innovation, where continuous improvement and adaptation to new technologies and practices are encouraged. The paragraph also stresses the need for product managers to be missionaries—individuals deeply committed to their product's success—rather than mercenaries who may lack long-term ownership. Data-driven decision-making is underscored as a fundamental aspect of product management, with the ability to analyze user behavior and market potential guiding product direction.

Keywords

💡Product Discovery

Product Discovery refers to the process of identifying and validating the viability of a product concept before full-scale development. It is a critical phase in product management, ensuring that the product being developed meets a real market need. In the video, the importance of product discovery is emphasized as it helps in building the right product by testing assumptions with potential users and finding the best solution to a defined problem.

💡Prototyping

Prototyping is the creation of a sample or model of a product to test and demonstrate its design and functionality. It is a key part of product discovery, allowing product teams to get feedback and validate their ideas. The script mentions prototyping as one of the many different topics covered by Marty Kagan in his book, highlighting its importance in ensuring the right product is being developed.

💡Product Management

Product Management is the process of guiding a product from its inception to its delivery to customers. It involves understanding market needs, defining product features, and working closely with cross-functional teams to bring the product to life. The video's theme revolves around the principles of product management as discussed in Marty Kagan's book, emphasizing the role of product managers in creating tech products that customers love.

💡Product Teams

Product Teams are cross-functional groups responsible for the development and success of a product. They typically include product managers, designers, engineers, and other stakeholders who work together to deliver a product end-to-end. The script discusses the composition and importance of product teams, noting that they should have ownership and be empowered to make decisions about the product they are managing.

💡Two-Pizza Team

The term 'Two-Pizza Team' refers to a team size that is small enough to be fed with two pizzas, suggesting a limit of around 6-8 members. This concept is mentioned in the script to illustrate the ideal size for product teams, allowing for agility and efficient decision-making without the need for extensive coordination.

💡Product Culture

Product Culture encompasses the values, practices, and behaviors that define how a company approaches product development. It is highlighted in the video as a crucial factor for success, with Marty Kagan discussing the need for a culture that trusts and enables product teams to take ownership and innovate.

💡Data-Driven

Being data-driven means making decisions based on data and analytics rather than intuition or personal bias. The script emphasizes the importance of product managers being data-driven, using data to validate assumptions, understand product adoption, and make informed decisions about product direction.

💡Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach that prioritizes empathy for the user, aiming to create solutions that are user-centric. The video mentions design thinking as one of the principles important for product managers to understand user needs and behaviors, which is integral to creating products that customers love.

💡Innovation

Innovation refers to the process of introducing new ideas, methods, or products. The script discusses the importance of fostering a culture of innovation within companies, challenging the status quo, and adapting to changes in technology and practices to build successful products.

💡Missionaries vs. Mercenaries

In the context of product teams, 'Missionaries' are individuals who are deeply committed to the mission and vision of the product they are building, while 'Mercenaries' are those who may be skilled but lack a deep commitment to the product's success. The video emphasizes the preference for missionaries in product teams due to their passion and ownership.

💡Product Execution

Product Execution is the act of carrying out the plan to develop and launch a product. It involves coordinating the efforts of product teams and ensuring that the product is delivered according to specifications and in a timely manner. The script acknowledges the difficulty of product execution, stating that even with the correct steps, success is not guaranteed.

Highlights

The book 'Inspired' by Marty Cagan focuses on creating tech products that customers love and is particularly useful for product managers.

It emphasizes the importance of product discovery, ensuring that the right product is being built to solve the correct problems.

The book discusses various methods for validating assumptions, such as prototyping, testing, and seeking user feedback.

Marty Cagan stresses the significance of building the right product over simply building a product, highlighting the challenges in product discovery.

The role of product teams is explored, detailing the composition and responsibilities of end-to-end product delivery teams.

Product managers are encouraged to work closely with designers, engineers, and other stakeholders for a comprehensive product development.

The concept of 'two-pizza teams' is introduced, suggesting optimal team sizes for effective product management.

Ownership within product teams is highlighted as crucial for making independent decisions aligned with company vision and strategy.

The book touches on the importance of product culture, advocating for trust, empowerment, and innovation within companies.

Marty Cagan differentiates between 'missionaries' and 'mercenaries' in product teams, favoring those with a deep commitment to their work.

The book promotes a culture of innovation, challenging traditional practices and embracing new methodologies like agile and design thinking.

Data-driven decision making is underscored as essential for product managers to validate assumptions and understand product adoption.

Collaboration between product managers and data scientists is highlighted to gain deeper insights into product direction and user behavior.

The difficulty of product management is acknowledged, with the book providing guidance rather than a guaranteed formula for success.

The book does not claim to be the ultimate guide but offers valuable insights into modern product management practices.

Marty Cagan's book is recommended for those interested in understanding the principles of effective product management in tech companies.

The transcript suggests that while the book is valuable, it should be complemented with practical experience and other resources.

Transcripts

hey juan here a while ago some of you

asked me to make a review of the marty

kagan book inspired you might be

familiar with this book competition you

have read it and as the tagline says

this book is about how you can create

tech products that your customers love

so this should be a really good book for

people that are interested in problem

management so let's talk about what this

book is about so maybe before going into

the book i would like to say that i'm

not going to do a complete summary i

just want to go through some of the

topics that the book talks about and

what do i think about them as you can

imagine this is a book it covers quite

many topics and these topics are going

to be relevant in general to

people people in general that are going

to be working in positions like proud

managers or potentially of course pro

owners but if you are interested also in

building products some building tech

products especially this could be a very

interesting book for you to read and as

i said the book is focused for

pro managers working in tech companies

and but as marty mentions in the book

himself the principles for pro

management are relatively similar from

one industry to another but of course

the practices and the details are going

to be varying between one another so

there's going to be always adjustments

that need to be done depending on which

industry or what type of products are

you managing so one of the main topics

that is covered throughout the book and

is covered many many many times is the

topic of product discovery how important

it is to actually build the right

product it is not so easy to find what

is the right product and what is the

current problem that actually you should

be solving what is the best solution

that will solve that problem and how do

you find a large enough user audience

for that product that you are defining

in here marti covers many many many

different topics he talks about

different things like prototyping

testing validating the assumptions that

you have with different type of users

basically the focus is to make sure that

what you're building is the right thing

for your users this is always easier

said than done and it's very easy for

anybody to think that we know the

answers that we understand our customers

the best and we can come with the best

solutions but the reality is that that's

rarely the case so this requires a lot

of work when it comes to product

discovery and he actually talks about a

lot how can you be working continuously

in product discovery and doing a lot of

testing sessions with potential

customers continuously to get feedback

and actually try to find out those bad

ideas as soon as possible so you can

move them out of the way and concentrate

on the things that are actually going to

bring value to the users and he's not

only talking about a certain type of

testing and validation he's talking

about many different ways of validating

the product he talks about testing

feasibility testing usability testing

business viability so he covers many

different topics maybe not just the more

typical ui or user experience testing

scenarios that we typically more will be

talking about but he also concentrates a

lot on talking about the business side

which is something that many times is

kind of ignored by many people in

problem management the next topic the

marty covers a lot and these are by the

way no particular order of how they are

covered in the book is the

definition of product teams and he's not

talking about product when it's

maintenance he's talking about product

things that can deliver a product

end-to-end so here he talks a lot about

who should be in those teams and who

should be the ones that are actually

having to work together most of the time

to make sure that you are not only

taking the needs of the users but also

the needs of other units that are going

to be working in this product so how

much is this going to impact for example

the engineering team how are feasible a

solution actually is is there a better

solution that potentially the product

manager didn't come up with and it's

somebody that from the engineering team

that has the knowledge or the technical

knowledge to come up with potential

solutions so when talking about these

product teams he talks about the

different people that should be in this

thing typically of course there's going

to be a problem manager who is trying to

find out what is the problem and

actually find

the solution that is going to be the

best for the problem this doesn't mean

that the problem manager

he or she has to find the problem and

the solution on their own they have to

work with other people so here the prime

manager has to work a lot with the

product designer who is actually going

to look into how

this is going to work how the user is

going to interact with your product then

they're going to work a lot also with

people in the engineering teams

typically with some of them more than

others and there's going to be sometimes

like a checklist or a cto or whatever is

the position that is always going to be

more involved in making the decisions of

where the technology that the product is

based on is going on how it's going to

build what makes sense and what doesn't

make sense so working with them again is

going to be key also to understand the

potential effort of the development that

you are trying to do then depending on

the teams there are going to be

different parties involved this can be

test automation engineers are going to

make sure that what your building is so

healthy and not breaking there's going

to be people that are going to be data

scientists data engineers that are going

to make sure that you can get all the

data that you need on the usage and the

performance of the products that you're

building and then finally also there's

going to be people like pro marketing

managers that are going to look into how

we are going to promote the product once

it's going live to the users there might

be other stakeholders that are going to

actually be planning the launch of the

product that you will have to also

perhaps not include as a constant or

permanent members of these product teams

but they are going to be more like

virtual members of those teams why these

things are very important the idea with

these teams is that these teams have

ownership of the part of the product or

the whole product that they are managing

this means that they can make the

decisions of where the product is going

to go and how is it going to be built

this doesn't mean that they don't align

with the rest of the company of course

they have to align with the vision of

the company the strategy of the company

but once the framework is set then they

are good to go to do the planning the

road mapping on their own and delivering

those features on their own these are

the many times known as the two pizza

teams referring about the size of the

team here and then the idea is that

these themes own the whole end-to-end

process of delivering the product to the

users and yes here these things and in

these proteins typically are not going

to be other stakeholders involved like

the people that can give feedback on

what the customers are are doing or what

the customer needs are so those are just

usually considered as stakeholders

outside those teams this doesn't mean

that these product teams don't work with

those stakeholders the idea with these

productions is that they are empowered

and trusted to find the problems of the

users and being able to build those

solutions that your users are going to

love i know all the product teams are

going to be perfect and not all the

productions are going to be the same

level here is where you actually had to

help than the teams to get to those

levels here's the roles for the cto pro

directors cpos whatever is the title to

help and enable those teams to perform

as better as they can another big topic

that marty talks a lot in the inspire

book is about product culture having the

right product culture in the company is

why is going to help you succeed or not

if you don't have the right product

culture it's going to be very difficult

that you are actually going to succeed

building this type of products or

especially for tech products product

culture means that you are able to trust

and enable and

help those product teams to grow and

take ownership of what they're building

it is not an easy thing it's very easy

for many companies especially companies

that have been working a long time to

have a lack of trust in these

productions because the

understanding is that people don't know

how to do their work unless they are

managed and sometimes even micromanage

so being able to detach yourself and let

those teams grow and actually take the

ownership and drive those products on

their own is not an easy path and it's

not an easy thing to do for many

companies out there marty also talks

about the personality of the people that

you want to be in these productions you

want people especially when you think

about product management you want people

that are missionaries not people that

are mercenaries you want people that are

actually going to spread the word of

what they're building and making sure

that everybody out there hears about

what they are building you don't want

people that are mercenaries that are

really good at what they are doing but

they just can't to do the job and then

they move to the next one but not

necessarily with being able to

commit and have a

big ownership of what they are doing you

want people to really take ownership of

what they do and that they are able to

participate and help others getting

there also it's very important for the

prague culture to have a culture of

innovation within the company be able to

innovate constantly to challenge the

ways of working and i don't mean in a

bad way necessarily but understanding

that things are moving on the time

technology is changing all the time

there's better ways of doing many things

nowadays and it's not just about

technology but it's also about practices

agile is not a new thing anymore but

there's many companies that are not

implementing it right there's many other

processes out there like design thinking

that people are sorry maybe principals

out there that people are not taking

into account or they are not considering

when they are working with their

customers for example so there's always

better ways of doing things learning and

having a culture that promotes

innovation constantly in the company it

will help you a lot to build successful

products this in my opinion doesn't

restrict itself only to practice it

should also apply to anybody in the

company because there's always new ways

of doing marketing or to new ways of

selling products the next big topic that

marty talks about is product managers

that are data driven this is obviously

not a new thing obviously the book is

not a new book either but uh being data

driven and using all the data that you

have available to make decisions is

going to always help you a lot data can

be used in many different ways it can be

used to validate assumptions it can be

used to understand the adoption of a

product it can be understand the

potential size of a market it can be

used in many different ways being able

to work with data to understand data to

read analytics that works and also as

for the potential data that you need is

going to be very important for a product

manager and i see a lot of collaboration

more and more coming between product

managers data scientists to understand

better the directions that a product

potentially can be going users you

always have to have the in mind you

always have to work with them and here

is why design thinking and all these

different principles are very important

being able to also understand the data

and the behavior of mass large masses of

users how they behave with or how they

use your product is going to help you a

lot making decisions of which direction

the product can be going in the future

and then finally one topic that he comes

back and again and again is that product

is hard product management is hard pro

execution is hard product design is hard

it's really really difficult to get the

product right even if you do all the

correct steps that doesn't mean that you

are going to succeed but it's going to

help you to get there many times is

said the most of the startups out there

fail and this happens not just to

startups it has happens with established

companies startups is only more visible

because usually when they fail they

typically have one product and there it

goes the startup with big companies they

can fail in one product or in a big

feature but people are not going to

notice we've seen many times versions of

windows which are arguable not the best

ones ever

and other versions of microsoft windows

which are relatively okay or quite good

it depends on who you ask and not trying

to be here a microsoft lover or anything

like that but some of them they were

better obviously than others that

doesn't mean that the company bank goes

bankrupt or anything like that so but

that doesn't mean that windows 8 was a

very good version of windows but here

you can see for example that the company

can fail at delivering a product and the

product can be can fail at being adopted

by the users the company can still

continue but this doesn't mean the big

companies don't fail at problem

management so as i said the book covers

many other different topics but i think

that these were the very

big topics that it covered in my opinion

at least those where my kid takes us uh

what do you think

was there anything that he was talking

about that you thought that was also a

big topic at least in your opinion

please share in the comments below as

you can imagine i'm not trying to do a

summary realistically of the book i

think that the book is there so if

you're interested you should go and take

and take a look it's a really good book

it's

also something that you have to pay

attention it is a book so it's going to

help you to get into some directions

it's going to help you understanding the

principles it's not going to tell you

exactly everything it's not a course as

such so if you want a course

marty kagan has a business that goes

into that direction so is this book the

ultimate guide the book that every

single pro manager out there has to read

well no i don't think that there's such

a book that can be considered the

ultimate guide to pretty much anything

out there what this book does very well

is just to help you to guide you to

understand what proud management is and

how is done in modern companies and how

can you do it in a better way i will

leave the link of where you can purchase

the book down below if you have read the

book uh i would love to hear your

thoughts about it uh how did you find it

how

was your experience and what were your

key takeouts and did you find it this to

be a useful read or not i will see you

in the next one and remember stay safe

[Music]