bookJanuary 9, 2026
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
by marty-cagan
The job of a product manager is to discover products that are valuable, usable, and feasible—not to manage projects or gather requirements.
Core Framework
Cagan distinguishes between "product teams" and "feature teams." Feature teams exist to serve the business by shipping what stakeholders request. Product teams exist to serve customers by solving problems. The difference shapes everything: how you hire, how you measure success, and whether your best people stay.
Key Concepts
- Product discovery over delivery: Most teams spend 90% of their time building and 10% discovering what to build. Successful companies invert this ratio during early stages.
- Missionaries vs. mercenaries: Missionaries believe in the vision and own outcomes. Mercenaries build what they're told. You can't fake the difference.
- Continuous discovery: The best teams run small experiments constantly, validating risks before committing engineering resources.
- Empowered teams: Teams need a problem to solve, not a feature to build. Give them objectives, let them find solutions.
Connections
No directly related notes in the knowledge base yet. This book establishes foundational product management concepts that future notes may reference.