20 highlights from "Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love"
20 highlights from "Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love"
I recently finished reading “Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” by the great Marty Cagan.
If you’re in charge of Product in you organisation and haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend that you do. This book is truly a reference in the domain and will give you the best practises on how to approach Product.
Here are 20 passages from the book which I found truly insightful:
“It doesn't matter how good your engineering team is if they are not given something worthwhile to build.”
“I consider developers to be one of the consistently best sources of truly innovative product ideas.”
“So, I promise you that at least half the ideas on your roadmap are not going to deliver what you hope. (By the way, the really good teams assume that at least three quarters of the ideas won't perform like they hope.)"
“Unfortunately, projects are output and product is all about outcome.”
“The successful product manager must be the very best versions of smart, creative, and persistent.”
“Today, we know that the technology drives (and enables) the functionality as much as the other way around. We know that technology drives (and enables) design. We know that design drives (and enables) functionality.”
“The most important point for technology companies: If you stop innovating, you will die”
“Your team should release no less frequently than every two weeks (very good teams release multiple times per day).”
“One of the absolute hardest assignments in our industry is to try to cause dramatic change in a large and financially successful company.”
“Strong technology people are drawn to an inspiring vision—they want to work on something meaningful.”
“Most important, the product vision should be inspiring, and the product strategy should be focused.”
“Fall in love with the problem, not with the solution.”
“We need to learn fast, yet also release with confidence.”
“We know we can't count on our customers (or our executives or stakeholders) to tell us what to build. Customers don't know what's possible, and with technology products, none of us know what we really want until we actually see it.”
“The most important thing is to know what you can't know.”
“Product/market fit shows up in terms of happier customers, lower churn rates, shortened sales cycles, and rapid organic growth.”
"Good product organizations have a strong team, a solid vision, and consistent execution. A great product organization adds the dimension of a strong product culture.”
“Good teams have a compelling product vision that they pursue with a missionary‐like passion. Bad teams are mercenaries.”
“Good teams celebrate when they achieve a significant impact to the business results. Bad teams celebrate when they finally release something.”
“Good teams obsess over their reference customers. Bad teams obsess over their competitors.”