As former Netscape engineer and longtime Amazonian Brad Porter puts it, “Speed and scale are weapons, and Amazon has already told everyone its secret … if only they have the discipline to implement it.”
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).
As former Netscape engineer and longtime Amazonian Brad Porter puts it, “Speed and scale are weapons, and Amazon has already told everyone its secret … if only they have the discipline to implement it.”
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
Your highest‐order contribution and responsibility as product manager is to make sure that what the engineers are asked to build will be worth building. That it will deliver the necessary results. 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.
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
thinking like an owner versus thinking like an employee is primarily about taking responsibility for the outcome rather than just the activities.
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
the four big risks that every product team needs to consider are: Will the customer buy it, or choose to use it? (Value risk) Can the user figure out how to use it? (Usability risk) Can we build it? (Feasibility risk) Can the stakeholders support this solution? (Business viability risk)
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
If the decision is primarily about enabling technology, if at all possible, we defer to our tech lead. If the decision is primarily about the user or customer experience, if at all possible, we defer to our product designer. And if the decision is primarily about business viability, we will depend on the product manager collaborating with the relevant stakeholders. The hardest decisions are usually around value, as value is a function of the whole.
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered
Most people coming from a feature team‐style company are surprised to see the differences in terms of recruiting, the seriousness of the interview process, how much time they devote to new employee onboarding, and most important, the ongoing effort in coaching and developing their people to reach their potential.
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones in Empowered