INSPIRED, 2nd Edition

INSPIRED, 2nd Edition

by Marty Cagan
Released December 2017
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119387503

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Book description

How do today’s most successful tech companies—Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla—design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently than the vast majority of tech companies. In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love—and that will work for your business.

With sections on assembling the right people and skillsets, discovering the right product, embracing an effective yet lightweight process, and creating a strong product culture, readers can take the information they learn and immediately leverage it within their own organizations—dramatically improving their own product efforts. 

Whether you’re an early stage startup working to get to product/market fit, or a growth-stage company working to scale your product organization, or a large, long-established company trying to regain your ability to consistently deliver new value for your customers, INSPIRED will take you and your product organization to a new level of customer engagement, consistent innovation, and business success. 

Filled with the author’s own personal stories—and profiles of some of today’s most-successful product managers and technology-powered product companies, including Adobe, Apple, BBC, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix—INSPIRED will show you how to turn up the dial of your own product efforts, creating technology products your customers love. 

The first edition of INSPIRED, published ten years ago, established itself as the primary reference for technology product managers, and can be found on the shelves of nearly every successful technology product company worldwide. This thoroughly updated second edition shares the same objective of being the most valuable resource for technology product managers, yet it is completely new—sharing the latest practices and techniques of today’s most-successful tech product companies, and the men and women behind every great product.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Preface to the Second Edition
  4. PART I: Lessons from Top Tech Companies
    1. CHAPTER 1: Behind Every Great Product
    2. CHAPTER 2: Technology‐Powered Products and Services
    3. CHAPTER 3: Startups: Getting to Product/Market Fit
    4. CHAPTER 4: Growth‐Stage Companies: Scaling to Success
    5. CHAPTER 5: Enterprise Companies: Consistent Product Innovation
    6. CHAPTER 6: The Root Causes of Failed Product Efforts
    7. CHAPTER 7: Beyond Lean and Agile
    8. CHAPTER 8: Key Concepts
      1. Holistic Product
      2. Continuous Discovery and Delivery
      3. Product Discovery
      4. Prototypes
      5. Product Delivery
      6. Products and Product/Market Fit
      7. Product Vision
  5. PART II: The Right People
    1. Product Teams
      1. Overview
    2. CHAPTER 9: Principles of Strong Product Teams
      1. Team of Missionaries
      2. Team Composition
      3. Team Empowerment and Accountability
      4. Team Size
      5. Team Reporting Structure
      6. Team Collaboration
      7. Team Location
      8. Team Scope
      9. Team Duration
      10. Team Autonomy
      11. Why It Works
    3. CHAPTER 10: The Product Manager
      1. Key Responsibilities
      2. Deep Knowledge of the Customer
      3. Deep Knowledge of the Data
      4. Deep Knowledge of Your Business
      5. Deep Knowledge of Your Market and Industry
      6. Smart, Creative, and Persistent
      7. Product Manager Profiles
    4. CHAPTER 11: The Product Designer
      1. Product Discovery
      2. Holistic User Experience Design
      3. Prototyping
      4. User Testing
      5. Interaction and Visual Design
      6. The Absence of Product Design
    5. CHAPTER 12: The Engineers
    6. CHAPTER 13: Product Marketing Managers
    7. CHAPTER 14: The Supporting Roles
      1. User Researchers
      2. Data Analysts
      3. Test Automation Engineers
    8. CHAPTER 15: Profile: Jane Manning of Google
    9. People @ Scale
      1. Overview
    10. CHAPTER 16: The Role of Leadership
      1. Leaders of Product Management
      2. Leaders of Product Design
      3. Leaders of Technology Organization
      4. Holistic View Leadership Roles
    11. CHAPTER 17: The Head of Product Role
      1. Competencies
    12. CHAPTER 18: The Head of Technology Role
      1. Organization
      2. Leadership
      3. Delivery
      4. Architecture
      5. Discovery
      6. Evangelism
    13. CHAPTER 19: The Delivery Manager Role
    14. CHAPTER 20: Principles of Structuring Product Teams
    15. CHAPTER 21: Profile: Lea Hickman of Adobe
  6. PART III: The Right Product
    1. Product Roadmaps
      1. Overview
    2. CHAPTER 22: The Problems with Product Roadmaps
    3. CHAPTER 23: The Alternative to Roadmaps
    4. Product Vision
      1. Overview
    5. CHAPTER 24: Product Vision and Product Strategy
      1. The Product Vision
      2. The Product Strategy
    6. CHAPTER 25: Principles of Product Vision
    7. CHAPTER 26: Principles of Product Strategy
    8. CHAPTER 27: Product Principles
    9. Product Objectives
      1. Overview
    10. CHAPTER 28: The OKR Technique
    11. CHAPTER 29: Product Team Objectives
    12. Product @ Scale
      1. Overview
    13. CHAPTER 30: Product Objectives @ Scale
    14. CHAPTER 31: Product Evangelism
    15. CHAPTER 32: Profile: Alex Pressland of the BBC
  7. PART IV: The Right Process
    1. Product Discovery
      1. Overview
    2. CHAPTER 33: Principles of Product Discovery
    3. CHAPTER 34: Discovery Techniques Overview
      1. Discovery Framing Techniques
      2. Discovery Planning Techniques
      3. Discovery Ideation Techniques
      4. Discovery Prototyping Techniques
      5. Discovery Testing Techniques
      6. Testing Feasibility
      7. Testing Usability
      8. Testing Value
      9. Testing Business Viability
      10. Transformation Techniques
    4. Discovery Framing Techniques
      1. Overview
    5. CHAPTER 35: Opportunity Assessment Technique
      1. Business Objective
      2. Key Results
      3. Customer Problem
      4. Target Market
    6. CHAPTER 36: Customer Letter Technique
    7. CHAPTER 37: Startup Canvas Technique
    8. Discovery Planning Techniques
      1. Overview
    9. CHAPTER 38: Story Map Technique
    10. CHAPTER 39: Customer Discovery Program Technique
      1. The Power of Reference Customers
      2. Single Target Market
      3. Recruiting the Prospective Reference Customers
      4. The Relationship
      5. Platform/API Products
      6. Customer‐Enabling Tools
      7. Consumer Products
      8. Summary
    11. CHAPTER 40: Profile: Martina Lauchengco of Microsoft
    12. Discovery Ideation Techniques
      1. Overview
    13. CHAPTER 41: Customer Interviews
    14. CHAPTER 42: Concierge Test Technique
    15. CHAPTER 43: The Power of Customer Misbehavior
    16. CHAPTER 44: Hack Days
    17. Discovery Prototyping Techniques
      1. Overview
      2. Feasibility Prototypes
      3. User Prototypes
      4. Live‐Data Prototypes
      5. Hybrid Prototypes
    18. CHAPTER 45: Principles of Prototypes
    19. CHAPTER 46: Feasibility Prototype Technique
    20. CHAPTER 47: User Prototype Technique
    21. CHAPTER 48: Live‐Data Prototype Technique
    22. CHAPTER 49: Hybrid Prototype Technique
    23. Discovery Testing Techniques
      1. Overview
    24. CHAPTER 50: Testing Usability
      1. Recruiting Users to Test
      2. Preparing the Test
      3. Testing Your Prototype
      4. Summarizing the Learning
    25. CHAPTER 51: Testing Value
      1. Testing Demand
      2. Testing Value Qualitatively
      3. Testing Value Quantitatively
    26. CHAPTER 52: Demand Testing Techniques
    27. CHAPTER 53: Qualitative Value Testing Techniques
      1. Interview First
      2. Usability Test
      3. Specific Value Tests
      4. Iterating the Prototype
    28. CHAPTER 54: Quantitative Value Testing Techniques
      1. A/B Testing
      2. Invite‐Only Testing
      3. Customer Discovery Program
    29. CHAPTER 55: Testing Feasibility
    30. CHAPTER 56: Testing Business Viability
      1. Marketing
      2. Sales
      3. Customer Success
      4. Finance
      5. Legal
      6. Business Development
      7. Security
      8. CEO/COO/GM
    31. CHAPTER 57: Profile: Kate Arnold of Netflix
    32. Transformation Techniques
      1. Overview
    33. CHAPTER 58: Discovery Sprint Technique
    34. CHAPTER 59: Pilot Team Technique
    35. CHAPTER 60: Weaning an Organization Off Roadmaps
    36. Process @ Scale
      1. Overview
    37. CHAPTER 61: Managing Stakeholders
      1. Stakeholder Defined
      2. Product Manager Responsibilities
      3. Strategies for Success
    38. CHAPTER 62: Communicating Product Learnings
    39. CHAPTER 63: Profile: Camille Hearst of Apple
  8. PART V: The Right Culture
    1. CHAPTER 64: Good Product Team/Bad Product Team
    2. CHAPTER 65: Top Reasons for Loss of Innovation
    3. CHAPTER 66: Top Reasons for Loss of Velocity
    4. CHAPTER 67: Establishing a Strong Product Culture
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. About the Author
  11. Learning More
  12. Index
  13. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: INSPIRED, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Marty Cagan
  • Release date: December 2017
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119387503