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Interviews
Published date: March 02, 2009© 2009 Avangate page 1
www.avangate.com
 
Interview with Marty Cagan
"Behind every great product there is a great product manager.That is why there are so few great products out there."
Daniel Nicolescu, Business Development Manager, Avangate
Interviews, Published date: March 02, 2009
Marty Cagan is the founding partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group(SVPG). SVPG was created to share senior level experience and bestpractices with technology companies. He is also the author of the book
 “Inspired: How To Create Products
 
Customers Love” 
 .Martyhas been a product executive for some of the biggest technologynames out there: Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, AmericaOnline, and most recently as Senior Vice President of Product Management and Design at eBay.Daniel,Business Development Manager for the US Avangate office, met Marty during a
presentation he gave at Stanford on “Product Discovery” and afterwards he was kind enoug
h toshare with us some tips on product development, with a deep focus on the importance of product prototyping and user testing.
Daniel Nicolescu:
What is product management and what is the role of a product managerinside a company?
Marty Cagan:
The product manager is responsible for discovering a product that is valuable,
usable and feasible. If he can do this, he’s done his job. If he can’t, there’s no point in spending
the time and money to build and launch the product.
Daniel Nicolescu:
Given th
e changing speed of today’s markets, what development process
would you recommend for a software product? Is Waterfalltoo old to be taken into consideration?
Marty Cagan:
Standard Waterfall is awful. At the least you must make some significantadjustments to address the core issues. Fundamentally, in Waterfall, validation occurs too late
 
 
Interviews
Published date: March 02, 2009© 2009 Avangate page 2
www.avangate.com
 
in the process; changes are costly and disruptive, and it takes too long to respond to themarket.For example, I have long argued that requirements and user experience design are intertwinedand should be done together. I don't like the old Waterfall model of a product manager doing"requirements" and handing that off to interaction designers that do "design" and then to some
engineers to “build”.
In many ways, the Waterfall process represents an idealistic but naive view of the softwaredevelopment process, where people are able to anticipate the key issues and fully understandthe requirements. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case with product software. In practice, theconsequence is that the product ships later than planned due to changes, and then expensive,time-consuming follow-on releases are required in order to correct issues once real users havea chance to see and use the actual software.For most types of software, I prefer Agilemethods like Scrum,but with some critical adjustments especially around design and product management. See this articlefor more info on succeeding with Agile.
Daniel Nicolescu:
What are some of the key techniques you recommend for productdiscovery?
Marty Cagan:
The first is creating a high-fidelity prototype, and the second is user testing. Youcan read more on SVPG website about prototypingat and user testing. 
Daniel Nicolescu:
What tools do you use and recommend in prototyping software products?
Marty Cagan:
In the Web space, in addition to the many good Web development tools such asDreamWeaver, there are now products that specialize in the prototyping/visualization space:Axureis a favorite of mine. The key is that you use something that lets you very quickly andeasily create a realistic user experience.
Daniel Nicolescu:
What do you look for in a product manager?
 
 
Interviews
Published date: March 02, 2009© 2009 Avangate page 3
www.avangate.com
 
Marty Cagan:
Behind every great product there is a great product manager. That is why thereare so few great products out there. The Product manager should be a person that can identifythe right product at the right time; that can represent the customer and fight for its needs.The product manager should have passion for the product, be able to develop and sustaincustomer empathy, he should be intelligent, have strong work ethics and integrity. He must beconfident and communicate easily and efficiently. He must know his product, his customers,and his competitors. He knows there are no excuses for failure and that his success comes fromthe product success and nothing else. The product manager should listen to his potentialcustomers, but not let them dictate the product.
Daniel Nicolescu:
What is the most common mistake that you see product managers making?
Marty Cagan:
Probably the most common mistake product managers make is to confusingcustomer requirements with product requirements.Many product teams look to the marketing function or sales or the customer to define the
product to be built. If you’re building a custom product, or doing contract product development
work, then letting your marketing or sales organization define your product may be fine.
However, if you’re trying to build an innovative product that will meet the needs of a wide
range of customers, then this approach will rarely produce the product you want.Product management is responsible for defining the right product. It is the job of the productmanager to deeply understand the target market and their needs, and then to work to combinewhat is possible with what is desirable, to create products that solve real problems.
Daniel Nicolescu:
Where can people learn more?
Marty Cagan:
 
My new book “Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love” is now
available on Amazon in both hardbackand digital downloadform, and the web siteis loaded with free content.
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