A newbie's guide to "Inspired"

I came late to this book.?

I had this weird notion - and I’ve still to this day no idea where this came from - that Silicon Valley “didn’t get product development”. Not as I knew product development, anyway.

I automatically dismissed any articles or talks or books that originated on the Pacific Coast.

I’d been working in tech for a good fifteen years without a clear, tangible, definitive steer on what good looked like.?

I’d formed my own view of this based on what I’d learned from the many organisations and teams I’d been a part of, taking bits and pieces from all over and framing them in line with my own style and preferences. I’d pulled together a discovery playbook of my own, and I had a “sensible default” for many aspects of product development.

When I finally caved and gave it a read, I’d summarise my reaction as “well, this chap certainly gets it.”

And every last aspect of “it” was articulated with incredible and impactful precision.

“...the goal of the book is to share the techniques and best practices for how strong product teams solve hard problems in ways that customers love, yet work for the business” - Marty Cagan, Inspired and Empowered (2020)

At that point in time, my experience was much more discovery and execution, and less leadership and strategy. Still is in truth. Inspired hardened many of my views on the nuts and bolts of product development. Sharpened a lot of them too. And yet at the same time, it broadened my horizons - shining a light on the areas that I hadn’t really taken as seriously as perhaps I should have.

Whilst I haven’t got through all of the books on that viral visual guide to PM books, Inspired is always the one I encourage people to start with.

Although I do so with three notes of caution, as I often wonder how it would have impacted me had I read it much earlier in my career. I’m convinced it would have been a net positive, but I do worry it may have overwhelmed me, given my limited maturity and experience, and abundant naivety and enthusiasm. I worry it could have resulted in an unhealthy surge of misplaced dogmatism.

“We can easily say that there was a world before the book INSPIRED and there is a world after. But as with life and in product, all good comes at a cost” - Bandan Jot Singh, The dark side of Marty Cagan'ization (2023)

And so, the three notes of caution:

The overwhelming majority of organisations do not work in this way - certainly not across all of the dimensions that the book covers. The man says this himself, although that message may get lost in all the many surrounding nuggets of excellence. There are many, many constraints that product development people face - I wrote about eleven of them last year. It is highly unlikely you will ever get to the level of execution described in the book. And this is okay. Inspired is a target to aim at - not a manifesto to flog yourself with when you fail to hit the lofty heights described within. And some teams simply don’t want to work like this, and that’s okay too.

Second, you do not need to be that product manager. You don’t need to do the 70 hour weeks. You don’t need to do the discovery and the delivery and the marketing and the analysis and the comms and the strategising and the recruitment and the evangelising and the mentoring. You can only do a fraction of this and still have an incredible impact. You can still be an awesome practitioner without having to be the starfish-shaped 10x master-of-all-trades. The same goes for designers and engineers. Be wary of putting unrealistic expectations on yourself and others around you.

Third, it isn’t your responsibility to move your teams and organisations forward in this regard. You can choose to do this. But be warned: it can be incredibly difficult, and you will be dealing in months and years rather than days and weeks. Attempts in this direction will sap your time and energy, and make you less effective at your role in the short-to-medium term. This can damage relationships. It can limit your career. This is not to say that it isn’t a noble and worthy pursuit - I wrote about this very thing last year also - but be sure to go into this with your eyes open. And don’t be too gung-ho in your approach. Allies are critical in such endeavours and nothing burns bridges faster than telling people they’re doing it all wrong.

Why have I written all this, you may ask? Because I want others to get as much as they can from the contents of this book, and also from the broader musings of SVPG. And not just aspiring product practitioners. It’s just as applicable to designers and engineers, and frankly anyone who works in a tech company. And particularly leaders - perhaps where it could have the biggest impact.

As well as getting yourself a copy from Amazon for just shy of twenty quid, you can listen to it on Audible where you may be able to score a free seven day trial.

If you aren’t able or inclined to invest the time or money, there’s a wealth of great, succinct articles on the SVPG website that you can still take a lot from. Product Management - Start Here is aptly titled.

And here’s five of my faves, just for the hell of it:

Product vs Feature Teams (2019) - whilst I might challenge this dichotomy, I think acknowledging the two extremes of the scale is very important to help move product development forwards. Although the article doesn’t offer any guidance on how to move from one to the other, it does help to define the different approaches of product teams.

Product Manager Job Description (2020) - a simple, concise description of what the role entails, and what to look for in PMs. A good yardstick to compare your own day to day to and a platform for your own recruitment and development paths.

The Role of Domain Experience (2005) - something I’ve felt for some time, particularly having worked in over a dozen industries. Ability trumps domain experience all day long. It was refreshing to see this articulated by someone with authority, even if it was written nearly 20 years ago!

Process People (2021) - I used to be a process person. I think I still am partly. This is something to call out, be aware of, and regularly keep in check - be it at a personal level, team level, or org level.

Product Strategy - Overview (2020) - an excellent springboard for anyone wanting to learn about or hone their strategic capability. The four sub-articles are also excellent - particularly the one on focus which, for me, is the thing that is most often lacking.

Epilogue

Empowered is a good read as well, and whilst I’ve yet to read Loved, I’ll definitely be giving Transformed a go when I get chance.

Happy reading / listening!