Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Written by Venkadesh Narayanan | Jul 25, 2020 10:42:53 AM

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.

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love | Marty Cagan | Wiley

         

Table of Contents

PART 1: Introduction: Lessons from Top Tech Companies

Chapter 1: Behind Every Great Product

Chapter 2: Technology-Powered Products and Services

Chapter 3: Startups: Getting to Product/Marketing Fit

Chapter 4: Growth-Stage Companies: Scaling to Success

Chapter 5: Enterprise Companies: Consistent Product Innovation

Chapter 6: The Root Causes of Failed Product Efforts

Chapter 7: Beyond Lean and Agile

Chapter 8: Key Concepts

 

PART 2: The Right People

Chapter 10: The Product Manager

Breakout: Product Manager vs. Product Owner

Breakout: The Two Critical Classes for Product Managers

Chapter 11: The Product Designer

Chapter 12: The Engineers

Breakout: The Tech Lead Role

Chapter 13: Product Marketing Managers

Chapter 14: The Supporting Roles

Chapter 15: Profile: Jane Manning of Google 

Chapter 16: The Role of Leadership 60

Chapter 17: The Head of Product Role 63

Breakout: The Group Product Manager Role 67

Chapter 18: The Head of Technology Role 69

Chapter 19: The Delivery Manager Role 71

Chapter 20: Principles of Structuring Product Teams 72

Breakout: Autonomy @ Scale 76

Chapter 21: Profile: Lea Hickman of Adobe

 

PART 3: The Right Product

Chapter 22: The Problems with Product Roadmaps 86

Chapter 23: The Alternative To Roadmaps 88

Breakout: High-Integrity Commitments 91

Product Vision 93

Chapter 24: Product Vision and Product Strategy 94

Breakout: Prioritizing Markets 97

Chapter 25: Principles of Product Vision 98

Chapter 26: Principles of Product Strategy 100

Chapter 27: Product Principles 101

Product Objectives 102

Chapter 28: The OKR Technique 104

Chapter 29: Product Team Objectives 106

Chapter 30: Product Objectives @ Scale 110

Chapter 31: Product Evangelism 112

Chapter 32: Profile: Alex Pressland of the BBC

 

PART 4: The Right Process

Chapter 33: Principles of Product Discovery 120

Breakout: Ethics: Should We Build It? 123

Breakout: Discovery Iterations 124

Chapter 34: Discovery Techniques Overview 125

Discovery Framing Techniques 128

Breakout: Problems vs. Solutions 130

Chapter 35: Opportunity Assessment Technique 131

Chapter 36: Customer Letter Technique 133

Chapter 37: Startup Canvas Technique 135

Breakout: The Biggest Risk 136

Discovery Planning Techniques 138

Chapter 38: Story Map Technique 139

Chapter 39: Customer Discovery Program Technique 141

Breakout: Defining Product/Market Fit 147

Chapter 40: Profile: Martina Lauchengco of Microsoft 148

Discovery Ideation Techniques 150

Chapter 41: Customer Interviews 151

Chapter 42: Concierge Test Technique 153

Chapter 43: The Power of Customer Misbehavior Technique 154

Breakout: The Power of Developer Misbehavior 156

Chapter 44: Hack Days 157

Discovery Prototyping Techniques 158

Chapter 45: Principles of Prototypes 160

Chapter 46: Feasibility Prototype Technique 161

Chapter 47: User Prototype Technique 163

Chapter 48: Live-Data Prototype Technique 165

Chapter 49: Hybrid Prototype Technique 167

Discovery Testing Techniques 168

Chapter 50: Testing Usability 169

Chapter 51: Testing Value 174

Chapter 52: Demand Testing Techniques 176

Breakout: Discovery Testing in Risk-Averse Companies 178

Chapter 53: Qualitative Value Testing Techniques 180

Chapter 54: Quantitative Value Testing Techniques 183

Breakout: The Role of Analytics 185

Breakout: Flying Blind 188

Chapter 55: Testing Feasibility 190

Breakout: Discovery for Hardware Products 192

Chapter 56: Testing Business Viability 193

Breakout: User Test vs. Product Demo vs. Walkthrough 196

Chapter 57: Profile: Kate Arnold of Netflix 197

Transformation Techniques 199

Chapter 58: Discovery Sprint Technique 200

Breakout: Discovery Coaches 202

Chapter 59: Pilot Team Technique 203

Chapter 60: Weaning an Organization Off Roadmaps 204

Process @ Scale 205

Chapter 61: Managing Stakeholders 206

Breakout: Devolving from Good to Bad 209

Chapter 62: Communicating Product Learnings 211

Chapter 63: Profile: Camille Hearst of Apple 212

 

PART 5: Summary: The Right Culture 214

Chapter 64: Good Product Team/Bad Product Team 215

Chapter 65: Top Reasons for Loss of Innovation 218

Chapter 66: Top Reasons for Loss of Velocity 220

Chapter 67: Establishing a Strong Product Culture 222

Acknowledgments 224

About the Author 226

Learning More 

 

LINK FOR THE BOOK

https://www.amazon.in/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers-ebook/dp/B077NRB36N#:~:text=In%20INSPIRED%2C%20technology%20product%20management,will%20work%20for%20your%20business.