#102 - Building Inspired & Empowered Product Teams - Marty Cagan Tech Lead Journal

“Instead of being given a roadmap of features, an empowered team is given a problem to solve and they get to figure out the best way to solve that problem."

Marty Cagan is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and the author of “Inspired” and “Empowered”. In this episode, we discussed how companies ought to build great products by learning from the best product companies. Marty explained the importance of building the right product and shared the two inconvenient truths about building products. Marty then elaborated on the traits a good product team has and how to create an empowered product team by ensuring ownership and alignment and by having clear product vision, strategy, and focus. Towards the end, Marty shared the importance of coaching and nurturing people, how to hire better, and how to structure product team topologies.

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:05:48]
Writing Inspired & Empowered - [00:11:38]
Building the Right Product - [00:16:23]
Two Inconvenient Truths - [00:17:45]
Traits of Good Product Teams - [00:22:06]
Engineering Involvement - [00:24:53]
Empowered - [00:26:44]
Ownership & Alignment - [00:28:41]
Product Vision & Strategy - [00:33:00]
Focus - [00:35:39]
Coaching & Nurturing People - [00:39:40]
Hiring - [00:41:56]
How to Structure Teams - [00:43:49]
4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:46:55]

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Marty Cagan’s Bio
Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising and coaching, Marty Cagan served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including HP Labs, Netscape Communications, and eBay. Marty is also the author of the books INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love and EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.

Follow Marty:


Website – https://www.svpg.com/
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan
Twitter – @cagan



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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/102.