Inspired Book: How to Develop Successful and Loved Technology Products by Customers
Inspired is a reference for every entrepreneur: from organizational improvements, tools to align teams to the real needs of users, to the discovery and delivery of products that customers love.
In this book, author Marty Cagan, one of the most influential people when it comes to high-tech product management, addresses the principles and practices that make products stand out and be a big hit in the marketplace.
In addition to sharing what he has learned from decades of experiences and achievements in developing inspiring products at companies such as Ebay, AOL, Netscape, Continuus and HP.
To do this, Marty Cagan structured his research and consulting as founder of Silicon Valley Product Group in three essential focuses: People, Processes and Products.
So, if you dream of launching a digital product, strive to find a way to adapt it to your audience, or if you already work in a well-established organization and want to provide new values to users and leverage results, the book Inspirational is for you.
Next, let’s discover the main lessons of this work!
Why do many products fail?
In the book Inspired, the author makes clear the problems faced by companies that use a standard “cascade” approach, that is, sequential effect, as the root causes of failed product efforts.
This questioning boils down to companies that use pre-planned and resourceful scripts to negotiate and prioritize them, instead of defining a vision for the product that combines information about their market, trends and customers, with a good dose of creativity and innovation.
And more: the product’s success depends exclusively on teams aligned with the company’s goals and their contributions to achieving them.
Just like that, “Inspired” warns about what not to do, bringing up 10 questions to reflect:
● 1. Mistaken source of ideas: in general, ideas come from internal areas by executives or key stakeholders or from outside by customers or potential customers, who do not feel empowered and greatly deprive the team of autonomy.
● 2. Fictitious business cases: how to determine how much money or value that idea will generate, and how much money and time it will cost, if at this initial stage, it is not really known what will be built and how well the solution will play in practice?
● 3. Product Roadmaps: Turns out to be a list of prioritized features and projects, but in fact, most ideas put into them will not work, and even when they prove to have potential, multiple iterations will be envisioned to get to the point where they deliver value tangible.
● 4. Far from the reality of the Product Manager: the job of the Product Manager in this model is more of a Project Manager: it compiles requirements and documentation for the team, totally the opposite of what its real function is.
● 5. Late Role of User Experience Designers: Involving designers only after requirements are met is simply too late to be able to innovate and add value.
● 6. Underutilized engineers: If you use your engineers (developers) only to code and program, you are only using half of their value. Engineers are typically the best source of innovation and are part of the evolutionary process from the beginning.
● 7. Agile for delivery only: Product development teams work agilely in the delivery phase and this represents only 20% of the organization’s potential.
● 8. Project is not a Product: Most projects are one-time works, while products have a continuous lifecycle and applied to new technologies and their resolutions.
● 9. Project-Focused Processes: Processes are very project-centric, being focused on delivering resources, while product teams must be focused on delivering results.
● 10. Delayed User Validation: The biggest shortcoming of this old “cascade” process is that all risk is concentrated at the end and user validation happens late rather than sooner and often.
As we saw in the waterfall mentality, Inspired explores key concepts in the world of products, in technology companies, whether startups, growth-stage companies or corporations.
And how to overcome these obsolete causes mentioned above?
In addition to the successful examples of Amazon, Google, and Netflix, cited in Inspirational, for managing to avoid this fate, author Marty Cagan offers three overarching principles:
➔ Risks are taken at the beginning, not at the end: it is better to risk and fail before deciding to build something, than after the product is ready.
Below are some common risks to consider:
➢ Value risk: Will users buy?
➢ Usability risk: will users know how to use it?
➢ Feasibility risk: is it possible to develop, considering time, team skills and available technology?
➢ Business risk: Does this solution work for all aspects of the business (from sales to legal)?
➢ Financial risk: can we afford this solution?
➢ Marketing risk: is this solution consistent with our brand?
➔ Products are defined and designed collaboratively, rather than sequentially: in engaged teams, product, design and engineering work side by side, in an exchange relationship, to come up with solutions.
➔ It’s about solving problems, not implementing features: Conventional products are about delivery, while better teams are concerned with ensuring that the solution solves the problem and drives business results.
According to Inspirational, “Continuous Discovery and Delivery” is a great way to translate these three principles into a new mindset for all professionals to adhere to.
The importance of the Product team
In Inspirational, everything starts with the people who are part of the cross-functional product team, with different specialties and responsibilities, and they are a fundamental factor in the success or failure of each initiative.
Remember: a product team should be made up of missionaries and not mercenaries, in short, people who truly believe in the vision, maintain trust, and are committed to solving the users’ problem.
For this to happen, the team must have at least a Product Manager, a Product Designer and a group of Engineers (developers), with clear objectives and a business problem that they have the autonomy to test various ways to solve. it, before just building what others ask.
So, if the team in your company is not dedicated at this level, this will certainly be the first thing to be corrected.
Still on the team, the Inspirational copy highlights the main responsibilities and knowledge of a Product Manager: evaluating opportunities, discovering a product that is valuable, usable and viable, and determining what should be developed and delivered to users.
● user knowledge: their questions, pains, desires and how they think;
● knowledge about data: knowing the customer and knowing how they use your product;
● knowledge of the business: how it works and what is the role of your product;
● market and industry knowledge: your competitors, emerging technologies, user behaviors and expectations, tracking industry experts, and so on.
The conclusion of this compilation of the Inspired book is that it doesn’t matter how good the Product team is, it doesn’t get something worth developing!
Take the opportunity to check all this out and optimize your People, Process and Product Management by reading the complete Inspirational!
