What is it about the top tech product companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and Tesla that enables their record of consistent innovation?
Most people think its because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so muchwho they hire, but ratherhow they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products.
As legendary Silicon Valley coach--and coach to the founders of several of todays leading tech companies--Bill Campbell said, Leadership is about recognizing that there's a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge.
The goal ofEMPOWERED is to provide you, as a leader of product management, product design, or engineering, with everything youll need to create just such an environment.
As partners at The Silicon Valley Product Group, Marty Cagan and Chris Jones have long worked to reveal the best practices of the most consistently innovative companies in the world. A natural companion to the bestsellerINSPIRED, EMPOWERED tackles head-on the reason why most companies fail to truly leverage the potential of their people to innovate: product leadership.
The book covers:
what it means to be an empowered product team, and how this is different from the feature teams used by most companies to build technology productsrecruiting and coaching the members of product teams, first to competence, and then to reach their potentialcreating an inspiring product vision along with an insights-driven product strategytranslating that strategy into action by empowering teams with specific objectivesproblems to solverather than features to buildredefining the relationship of the product teams to the rest of the companydetailing the changes necessary to effectively and successfully transform your organization to truly empowered product teams
EMPOWERED puts decades of lessons learned from the best leaders of the top technology companies in your hand as a guide. It shows you how to become the leader your team and company needs to not only survive but thrive.
Part I Lessons From Top Tech Companies1
Chapter 1 Behind Every Great Company 5
Chapter 2 The Role of Technology 12
Chapter 3 Strong Product Leadership 17
Chapter 4 Empowered Product Teams 23
Chapter 5 Leadership in Action 25
Chapter 6 A Guide toEMPOWERED27
Part II Coaching31
Chapter 7 The Coaching Mindset 33
Chapter 8 The Assessment 40
Chapter 9 The Coaching Plan 47
Chapter 10 The One-on-One 65
Chapter 11 The Written Narrative 73
Chapter 12 Strategic Context 76
Chapter 13 Sense of Ownership 81
Chapter 14 Managing Time 87
Chapter 15 Thinking 90
Chapter 16 Team Collaboration 93
Chapter 17 Stakeholder Collaboration 98
Chapter 18 Imposter Syndrome 102
Chapter 19 Customer-Centricity 105
Chapter 20 Integrity 109
Chapter 21 Decisions 114
Chapter 22 Effective Meetings 120
Chapter 23 Ethics 124
Chapter 24 Happiness 128
Chapter 25 Leader Profile:Lisa Kavanaugh134
Part III Staffing139
Chapter 26 Competence and Character 142
Chapter 27 Recruiting 146
Chapter 28 Interviewing 151
Chapter 29 Hiring 155
Chapter 30 Remote Employees 159
Chapter 31 Onboarding 164
Chapter 32 New Employee Bootcamp 170
Chapter 33 Performance Reviews 174
Chapter 34 Terminating 176
Chapter 35 Promoting 179
Chapter 36 Leader Profile:April Underwood182
Part IV Product Vision and Principles187
Chapter 37 Creating a Compelling Vision 190
Chapter 38 Sharing the Product Vision 195
Chapter 39 Product Principles and Ethics 201
Chapter 40 Leader Profile:Audrey Crane203
Part V Team Topology209
Chapter 41 Optimizing for Empowerment 212
Chapter 42 Team Types 216
Chapter 43 Empowering Platform Teams 220
Chapter 44 Empowering Experience Teams 224
Chapter 45 Topology and Proximity 229
Chapter 46 Topology Evolution 233
Chapter 47 Leader Profile:Debby Meredith236
Part VI Product Strategy241
Chapter 48 Focus 246
Chapter 49 Insights 251
Chapter 50 Actions 258
Chapter 51 Management 261
Chapter 52 Leader Profile:Shan-Lyn Ma264
Part VII Team Objectives269
Chapter 53 Empowerment 274
Chapter 54 Assignment 280
Chapter 55 Ambition 285
Chapter 56 Commitments 288
Chapter 57 Collaboration 292
Chapter 58 Management 295
Chapter 59 Accountability 298
Chapter 60 Objectives in Perspective 301
Chapter 61 Leader Profile:Christina Wodtke304
Part VIII Case Study309
Chapter 62 Company Backgrounder 312
Chapter 63 Company Objectives 314
Chapter 64 Product Vision and Principles 317
Chapter 65 Team Topology 319
Chapter 66 Product Strategy 325
Chapter 67 Product Team Objectives 334
Chapter 68 Business Results 343
Chapter 69 Key Takeaways 346
Chapter 70 Leader Profile:Judy Gibbons349
Part IX Business Collaboration355
Chapter 71 The Role of Product Leaders 357
Chapter 72 Stakeholder Management vs. Collaboration 360
Chapter 73 Shared Insights and Learning 363
Chapter 74 Keeping the Lights On 365
Chapter 75 Evangelism 367
Chapter 76 Leader Profile:Avid Larizadeh Duggan370
Part X Inspired, Empowered, And Transformed375
Chapter 77 Meaningful Transformation 377
Chapter 78 Transformation in Action 380
Chapter 79TRANSFORMED386
Chapter 80 The Most Important Thing 389
Chapter 81 The Destination 392
Acknowledgments 396
About the Authors 398
Learning More 400
Index 401
