INSPIRED

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INSPIRED Page 26

by Marty Cagan


  Culture of urgency—people feel like they are in wartime, and that if they don't find a way to move fast, then bad things could happen.

  Culture of high‐integrity commitments—teams understand the need for (and power of) commitments, but they also insist on high‐integrity commitments.

  Culture of empowerment—teams feel as though they have the tools, resources, and permission to do whatever is necessary to meet their commitments.

  Culture of accountability—people and teams feel a deep responsibility to meet their commitments. Accountability also implies consequences—not necessarily being terminated, except in extreme and repeated situations, but more likely consequences to their reputations among their peers.

  Culture of collaboration—while team autonomy and empowerment is important, teams understand their even higher need to work together to accomplish many of the biggest and most meaningful objectives.

  Culture of results—is the focus on output or is the focus on results?

  Culture of recognition—teams often take their cues from what is rewarded and what is accepted. Is it just the team that comes up with the great new idea that gets rewarded, or the team that delivered on a brutally tough commitment? And what is the message if missing a commitment is seen as easily excusable?

  So, if these characteristics help define each culture, this begs some pretty tough questions:

  Is an innovation culture in any way inherently at odds with an execution culture?

  Does a strong execution culture lead to a stressful (or worse) work environment?

  What types of people, including leaders, are attracted to, and needed, for each type of culture?

  I can tell you that there do exist companies that are very strong at both consistent innovation and execution. Amazon is one of the best examples. However, it's also well known that the Amazon work environment is not for the faint of heart. I've found that most companies that are exceptionally strong at execution are pretty tough places to work.

  In my experience working with companies, only a few companies are strong at both innovation and execution. Many are good at execution but weak at innovation; some are strong at innovation and just okay at execution; and a depressing number of companies are poor at both innovation and execution (usually older companies that lost their product mojo a long time ago, but still have a strong brand and customer base to lean on).

  In any case, what I hope you and your team will consider doing is assess yourself along these dimensions of innovation and execution, and then ask yourselves where you would like to be, or think you need to be, as a team or company.

  Acknowledgments

  The very nature of putting together this book on sharing best practices from the industry's best product companies means that I have learned from a great many exceptional people. I have been especially fortunate to have had the chance to work with and for some of our industry's best product minds and companies. I have learned from each one of these people, but some of them have made such a deep impression on me that I must thank them here.

  First and foremost, my partners at the Silicon Valley Product Group. They are my colleagues now precisely because I have been so impressed with their talents and have learned so much from each of them over the years: Lea Hickman, Martina Lauchengco, and Chris Jones.

  I must also thank Peter Economy, Jeff Patton, and Richard Narramore for their help reviewing and improving this book.

  The genesis of this book was material developed at Netscape Communications. Netscape provided an unparalleled learning opportunity, and I gained much insight about product and leadership by working for and with truly brilliant minds, including Marc Andreessen, Barry Appelman, Jennifer Bailey, Jim Barksdale, Peter Currie, Eric Hahn, Basil Hashem, Mike Homer, Ben Horowitz, Omid Kordestani, Keng Lim, Bob Lisbonne, Debby Meredith, Mike McCue, Danny Shader, Sharmila Shahani, Ram Shriram, Bill Turpin, and David Weiden.

  At eBay, I have to especially credit Marty Abbott, Mike Fisher, Chuck Geiger, Jeff Jordan, Josh Kopelman, Shri Mahesh, Pierre Omidyar, Lynn Reedy, Stephanie Tilenius, and Maynard Webb.

  Each one of these people has directly influenced me and informed specific topics in this book, either by their explicit help and coaching or simply by way of their leadership and actions that I was fortunate enough to witness first hand.

  While my time working for these exceptional companies was an invaluable learning experience, I found that as I began working with tech teams in my advisory and coaching work as part of SVPG, I benefited greatly by getting a chance to meet and work with the product leaders at many of the very best companies in our industry. There are simply too many people to list, but they know who they are, and I am grateful to every one of them.

  This book is based on material produced for a blog and newsletter that I have published for many years, and each and every topic was improved thanks to feedback and comments from literally thousands of product managers and product leaders from every corner of the globe. I thank everyone who has read, shared, and commented on these articles.

  Finally, those people who know the culture of the companies I've worked at understand that many very long hours were involved, and I could not have contributed to these companies without the support of my wife and children.

  About the Author

  Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising, and coaching, Marty Cagan served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including Hewlett‐Packard, Netscape Communications, and eBay.

  Marty began his career with a decade as a software engineer at Hewlett‐Packard Laboratories, conducting research on software technology and building several software products for other software developers.

  After HP, Marty joined a then‐young Netscape Communications Corporation, where he had the opportunity to participate in the birth of the Internet industry. Marty worked directly for co‐founder Marc Andreessen, where he was vice president for Netscape's platform and tools, and later e‐commerce applications, and worked to help Internet startups and Fortune 500 companies alike understand and use the newly emerging technology.

  Marty was most recently senior vice president of product and design for eBay, where he was responsible for defining products and services for the company's global e‐commerce trading site.

  During his career, Marty has personally performed and managed most of the roles of a modern software product organization, including engineering, product management, product marketing, user experience design, software testing, engineering management, and general management.

  As part of his work with SVPG, Marty is an invited speaker at major conferences and top companies across the globe.

  Marty is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz with bachelor of arts degrees in computer science and applied economics (1981) and of the Stanford University Executive Institute (1994).

  Learning More

  The Silicon Valley Product Group website (www.svpg.com) is designed as a free and open resource where we share our latest thoughts and learnings from the world of technology‐powered products.

  You will also find examples of the techniques described in the book (see www.svpg.com/examples) as well as a current recommended reading list (see www.svpg.com/recommended‐reading).

  For aspiring product managers, we hold occasional intense training sessions, usually in San Francisco, New York City, and London. Our goal is to share the most recent learnings and to provide a career‐defining experience for aspiring tech product managers (see www.svpg.com/public‐workshops/).

  For companies that believe they need dramatic and meaningful change across their technology and product organization to competitively produce technology‐powered products, we also offer custom, on‐site engagements.

  You can find more information on these various options and learn more about the SVPG partn
ers that provide these services, at www.svpg.com.

  Index

  A

  A/B testing

  Adobe consistent product innovation by

  Creative Suite and Creative Cloud of

  Lea Hickman of

  AdWords (Google)

  Agile at Scale

  Agile methods as conducive to consistent innovation

  inadequate application of

  leveraging the core principles of

  product owner role in the

  in support of

  waterfall process versus

  Airbnb

  Amazon consistent product innovation by

  customer-centric culture of

  customer letter technique used by

  product leadership of

  Analytics for quantitative value testing

  Andreessen, Marc

  API platforms customer discovery through

  developer misbehavior on public

  Apple Camille Hearst of

  consistent product innovation by

  consumer device products by

  iTunes product

  Architecture alignment of product team with

  CTO responsibility to build strong

  technical debt

  Arnold, Kate

  Audible

  Autonomy accountability tied to

  company culture emphasis on leverage versus

  as principle of product team

  product team structured for

  relationship between successful scaling and product team

  B

  BBC Alex Pressland of the

  “BBC Out of Home” product of

  Bezos, Jeff

  Blockbuster

  Business accounting/finance skills

  Business cases fatal flaw

  Business objectives CEO's responsibility for

  for each product team

  OKR (objectives and key results) of products for

  See also Product Team objectives

  Business results/outcomes execution culture with focus on

  focusing on outputs instead of

  leveraging technology for

  OKR (objectives and key results) of products

  outcome-based roadmaps

  product manager's deep knowledge of your

  Business strategy aligning product strategy with

  focusing on outputs versus outcomes

  Business viability risk

  Business viability testing business development

  challenges related to

  customer success

  description of

  finance

  legal

  marketing

  sales

  security

  C

  CEO of the Product

  Certified Scrum Product Owner class

  Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) being CEO of the product

  interest in business viability testing by

  responsibility for organization's objectives and key results

  VP product position interview with

  who drives the product vision

  Chief Information Officers (CIOs)

  Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) comparing CIOs and

  six major responsibilities of a

  leading the technology organization

  VP product position interview with

  See also VP engineering

  Collaboration company culture of

  Lean and Agile principles

  product team

  Communication of product learnings

  of product strategy across the organization

  story map as technique for

  Company culture customer-centric

  emphasis on autonomy versus leverage in

  loss of velocity due to consensus

  See also Product culture

  Computer programming skills

  Concierge testing technique

  Consistent innovation Agile methods as conducive to

  challenge of maintaining

  definition of

  ideas leading to

  top reasons for loss of

  Consumer device products

  Consumer products discovery program

  Consumer-service products

  Contextual inquiry

  Continuous discovery and delivery concept

  Corporate courage

  Creative Suite and Creative Cloud (Adobe)

  Cue, Eddy

  Culture. See Company culture; Product culture

  Customer-centric culture

  Customer discovery program techniques applied to consumer products

  applied to customer-enabling tools

  applied to platform/API products

  power of reference customers

  for qualitative value testing

  recruiting the prospective reference customers

  single target market

  when to use the

  Customer-enabling tools

  Customer interviews different forms of the

  return on your time

  as important skill to have

  tips on getting the most out of

  Customer letter technique Amazon's applications of the

  description of the

  Nordstrom's application of the

  Customer misbehavior technique

  Customer problems problems versus solutions

  opportunity assessment technique to identify the

  Customers alignment of product team with users or

  as always dissatisfied and wanting more

  building relationship with prospective

  concierge test technique used with

  obsessing over competitors rather than your

  opportunity assessment technique to identify target market

  problem of too late product validation by

  product evangelism by giving great demos to

  product evangelism by sharing the pain of

  product manager's deep knowledge of the

  reference

  unaware of what is possible with technology products

  Customer success strategy

  D

  Data analysts

  Data knowledge

  Dedicated product teams

  Delivery managers description of and need for

  loss of velocity tied to lack of

  Scrum Master role of

  See also Product delivery

  Demand testing techniques landing page demand test

  reasons for using

  Demos product evangelism by giving great

  user test versus walkthrough versus product

  Design. See Product design

  Design sprint technique, See Discovery Sprint technique.

  Developer misbehavior technique

  Discovery coaches

  Discovery framing techniques customer letter

  description of the

  to ensure team is on the same page

  to identify all the big risks

  mistake to focus on solutions instead of problems

  opportunity assessment

  startup canvas

  story map used for

  See also Risks

  Discovery ideation techniques concierge test

  customer interviews

  customer misbehavior

  description of the

  developer misbehavior

  hacks days

  story map used for

  when to use the

  See also Ideas

  Discovery pivot

  Discovery planning techniques customer discovery program

  overview of the

  story map

  Discovery prototyping techniques description of the

  feasibility prototype

  hybrid prototype

  live-data prototype

  types of prototypes for

  user prototype

  See also Prototypes

  Discovery Sprint technique

&nbs
p; Discovery testing techniques overview of the

  in risk-averse companies

  testing business viability

  testing demand

  testing feasibility

  testing usability

  testing value

  See also Risks

  Doerr, John

  Durable product teams

  E

  eBay e-commerce of

  “Everything Else” category of

  Empowerment accountability tied to

  company culture of

  innovation tied to product teams with

  product team accountability and

  Engineers being brought in too late to product development process

  innovation tied to discovery participation by

  loss of velocity tied to not including them in discovery

  making them feel like missionaries not mercenaries

  relationship between product managers and

  tech lead role of

  test automation

  Enterprise companies consistent product innovation challenge of

  Ethical risk

  Etsy

  Evangelizing by CTOs for technology organization

  by product management

  the product vision

  Execution product culture assessing your company's

  characteristics of

 

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