Starting to organize the Product Management Festival 2013, we were so proud to have committed Marty Cagan as our first keynote speaker ever – and he even runs a tutorial prior to the conference!
For the ones who come across his name for the first time, Marty is:
- Partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group
- Author of “Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love“
- Often referred to as the “most influential person in the product space” (btw: our MIPMP award voting is still open!)
During our communication of the conference programme with Marty Cagan as headliner, we realized something unbelievable: there are actually product people out there who do not know who he is and how influential his work is to our community! What a shame. But let’s fix it! And let’s put it in the words of his customers!
Marty’s books
Well, that’s an easy one, just look at Amazon. To be more efficient, here are some of the book reviews:
- “Marty Cagan says his book is limited to the IT industry but he underestimates it: I found most of the principles laid out to apply to my industry (chemicals). What I like the most is the accent he puts on the importance of customer experience with the product.”
- “It is a pity that there are only 5 stars to award the maximum appreciation for this book. There are a number of achievements that deserve, alone, five stars.”
- “First, Marty Cagan clearly states what qualities a Product Manager must have. Not everyone is talented to be a Product Manager. The author lists unmeasurable traits, such as product passion, customer empathy, innate intelligence (there is no substitute for it, we learn), ethics, integrity and confidence. The latter is very important as the entire teams in engineering and marketing must be kept inspired. This leads to the corollary that simply training a person to be a Product Manager is not enough. One must know when an unsuitable person must look for other positions. This is something uncommon, to consider what many view a process driven function to a talent. “
Marty’s consulting work
A quote we received in a MIPMP vote:
“I was granted to work with Marty, even if it was a very short time. I really enjoyed reading his book, his blog and his talks. Each of those inspire me in my daily work to be more efficient and productive.”
Marty’s trainings
We recently even received an email from one of his former clients, in which we were congratulated for having Marty over. The message states:
“When Marty conducted his first workshop at XING, I was on vacation. When I came back, I realized that a fundamental change had occurred. All of a sudden, User Experince was considered an important factor (even on Management level), everyone was talking about Product Discovery and the fact that product ideas need to be challenged and discussed with potential users as early as possible, etc.
All in all, Marty had a very positive impact on the mindset of the company as a whole, on how product development should be managed and most importantly, on what really is important when doing so.
Marty convinced us not only with his sheer experience, but also with the simple and clear ways of communicating his approaches.”
So now you know more! And are ready for action!
For the ones who haven’t known Marty yet, we hope you have received a good impression of what he is doing and how important his work for the technology world is. Use the unique chance and visit his only training in Zurich and see him speak at the conference.
About Marty Cagan
Marty Cagan is a Silicon Valley-based product executive with more than 20 years of experience with industry leaders including eBay, AOL, Netscape Communications and Hewlett-Packard. Marty is the author of the book “Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love” which presents techniques for creating winning products. Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, and advising, Martin was most recently the original leader of Product and Design for eBay, where he was responsible for defining products and services for the company’s global e-commerce trading site. Marty now works with technology companies from across the globe on improving both innovation and velocity.