Since computers and digital technology have become so ubiquitous in contemporary life, creating good software and technology products has become an important business function. Many (exceeding 50%) technology products fail, despite significant design, engineering, and financial efforts. How can we make this process more efficient and profitable? That’s the job of a relatively new job title: the product manager. In this book, Marty Cagan discusses how to fulfill this role in an organization so that success is realized by all parties.

Of note, this book is in a second edition, a feat that many technical books do not accomplish. And this book offers a more comprehensive and in-depth discussion about the role of product managers than any other text I’ve read to date. It discusses the critical tasks of identifying and confronting potential failure points early so that money and effort won’t be wasted. It also explores a cornucopia of niche topics that can polish the skillset of even experienced product managers.

While there is much positive in this book, I simply do not like the title. Professionally, I am a software developer who engages in many business activities, so I see much of product creation in my domain or tangential to my domain. This book talks more about structuring a business so that it can create products. Thus, it’s one step removed and focuses specifically on being a successful product manager. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but a title about inspiring creativity seems not to correspond with the text of the book. It’s not about product creation directly and more about managing product creation.

All that said, Cagan offers readers a lot in this book. The Silicon Valley Product Group, of which he is a member, does industry-leading work in this space, so anyone interested in learning from the best can benefit from perusing this book. Those organizing a team to create tech products, whether at a small firm or an established venture, can benefit from this work. Indeed, this book is one of the few titles that can raise the game of even experienced product managers. Finally, of course, those who aspire to fill this role will find a helpful introduction here. This field and this new role continue to evolve rapidly, like the technologies, but this description of product management is one of the best, if not the very best, out there. ( )

Great book. I think this will join Accelerate of my go to books for the vision and strategy I see in my workplaces. Not much new for me, but packaged in a accessible way.

And for the content, already In the first pages I find fuel for my questioning of year plans.

And the full width of this book, and the focus around the product role complements a lot of the previous literature I read on organizing teams. ( )

This book is a checklist for how to create a software product with a lot of good advise. I can really recommend someone with little product development experience to read through it and use as a suggestion list for things to do.

As usual the real world will be messier than the model development described in the book so it can't be taken literally. There will be constraints that force shortcuts, and while the author does suggest shortcuts as well, no two projects will be the same.

I'm a little split on how to grade it. It's not a great book, but it's useful for a small group of people. It's also not that interesting to read since it's mostly a couple of hundred pages of "do this, do that". Not that I would have wanted it to be longer, but it makes it a bit uninspiring. ( )

Read this book for work, and it really is the best book on how to create products out there. A ton of useful advice encapsulated in a good theoretical framework. Helped crystallize many of my existing intuitions while giving them the rigor and depth needed for actual practice. Recommended if you want to make good things! ( )

Title pretty much says it all. Much of this stuff will be helpful in my new career. ( )