Inspired 4

PART
I
Lessons from Top Tech
Companies
❦
I n the mid-1980s, I was a young software engineer working for

Hewlett Packard on a high-profile product. It was a time (the first
time) when artificial intelligence was all the rage, and I was fortunate
enough to be working at what was then one of the industry’s best
technology companies, as part of a very strong software engineering
team (several members of that team went on to substantial success in
companies across the industry).
Our assignment was a difficult one: to deliver AI-enabling tech-
nology on a low-cost, general-purpose workstation that, until then,
required a special-purpose hardware/software combination that cost
more than $100,000 per user—a price few could afford.
We worked long and hard for well over a year, sacrificing count-
less nights and weekends. Along the way, we added several patents
to HP’s portfolio. We developed the software to meet HP’s exacting
quality standards. We internationalized the product and localized it
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2 INSPIRED
for several languages. We trained the sales force. We previewed our

technology with the press and received excellent reviews. We were
ready. We released. We celebrated the release.
Just one problem: No one bought it.
The product was a complete failure in the marketplace. Yes, it
was technically impressive, and the reviewers loved it, but it wasn’t
something people wanted or needed.
The team was of course extremely frustrated with this outcome.
But soon we began to ask ourselves some very important questions:
Who decides what products we should build? How do they decide?
How do they know that what we build will be useful?
Our young team learned something very profound—something
many teams have discovered the hard way: It doesn’t matter how good
your engineering team is if they are not given something worthwhile to
build.
When trying to track down the root cause of our failure, I
learned that the decisions about what to build came from a product
❦
manager—someone who generally resided in the marketing organiza-
tion and who was responsible for defining the products we built. But
I also learned that product management wasn’t something HP was
particularly good at. I later learned that most companies weren’t good
at this either, and, in fact, most still aren’t.
I promised myself that never again would I work so hard on a
product unless I knew the product would be something that users and
customers wanted.
Over the next 30 years, I have had the very good fortune to work
on some of the most successful high-tech products of our time—first at
HP during the rise of personal computers; then at Netscape Communi-
cations during the rise of the Internet, where I worked as vice president
of platform and tools; later at eBay during the rise of e-commerce and
marketplaces, where I served as the senior vice president of product and
design; and then as an adviser to startups working with many of what
have become today’s most successful technology product companies.
Not every product effort has been as successful as others, but I
am happy to say that none were failures, and several became loved and
used by millions of people around the world.
Soon after I left eBay, I started getting calls from product orga-
nizations wanting to improve how they produced products. As I began
Lessons from Top Tech Companies 3
working with these companies,

I discovered that there was
I discovered that there was a
tremendous difference between
a tremendous difference
how the best companies produced between how the best
products and how most companies companies produced
produced them. products and how most
I realized that the state of the companies produced them.
art was very different from the state of
the practice.
Most companies were still using old and inefficient ways to dis-
cover and deliver products. I also learned that there was precious little
help available, either from academia, including the best business school
programs, or from industry organizations, which seemed hopelessly
stuck in the failed models of the past—just like the one I worked in
at HP.
I have had some great rides, and I am especially thankful that I
have had the chance to work for and with some of the best product
❦
minds in the industry. The best ideas in this book are from these people.
You will find a list of many of them in the acknowledgments. I have
learned from them all, and I am grateful to each one of them.
I chose this career because I wanted to work on products that cus-
tomers love—products that inspire and provide real value. I find that
most product leaders also want to create inspiring and successful prod-
ucts. But most products are not inspiring, and life is too short for bad
products.
My hope in writing this book is that it will help share the best
practices of the most successful product companies and that the result
will be truly inspiring products—products that customers love.
❦
CHAPTER
1
Behind Every Great Product
I t is my strong belief, and the central concept driving this book, that
behind every great product there is someone—usually someone
behind the scenes, working tirelessly—who led the product team to
combine technology and design to solve real customer problems in a
way that met the needs of the business.
These people usually have the title product manager, but they
might be a startup co-founder or CEO, or they might be someone in
another role on the team who stepped up because they saw the need.
Further, this product management role is very distinct from the
design, engineering, marketing, or project manager roles.
This book is intended for these people.
Within modern technology product teams, the product manager
has some very specific and very challenging responsibilities. It’s a
tremendously difficult job, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise
is not doing you any favors.
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6 INSPIRED
The product manager role

It is my strong belief, and
is usually very much a full-time
assignment. I don’t personally know the central concept driving
many who are able to do what they this book, that behind every
need to do in less than 60 hours great product there is
a week. someone—usually someone
It’s great if you’re a designer behind the scenes, working
or an engineer who also wants to tirelessly—who led the
serve as a product manager—there
product team to combine
are some real advantages to that.
But you’ll find out pretty quickly technology and design to
that you’re taking on an immense solve real customer problems
amount of work. If you’re up for in a way that met the needs
that, however, the results can be of the business.
impressive.
A product team is comprised of at least a product manager and
usually somewhere between 2 and 10 engineers. If you’re creating a
❦
user-facing product, you would expect to have a product designer on
your team as well.
In this book, we explore the situation wherein you might have to
use engineers or designers in a different location or from an agency or
outsourcing firm. But regardless of how you assemble your team, this
job and this book assume you have a team assigned to work with you
to design, to build, and to deliver a product.
CHAPTER
2
Technology-Powered
Products and Services
❦
T here are many kinds of products out there, but in this book, I
concentrate exclusively on products that are powered by technology.
Some of what we explore in this book may help you if you’re
building non-tech products, but there are no guarantees in that case.
Frankly, there are already a wide variety of readily accessible resources
for non-tech products such as most consumer packaged goods, and for
product managers of these non-tech products.
My focus is on the unique issues and challenges associated with
building technology-powered products, services, and experiences.
Some good examples of the sweet spot that we explore are
consumer-service products, such as e-commerce sites or marketplaces
(e.g., Netflix, Airbnb, or Etsy), social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn,
or Twitter), business services (e.g., Salesforce.com, Workday, or
Workiva), consumer devices (e.g., Apple, Sonos, or Tesla), and mobile
applications (e.g., Uber, Audible, or Instagram).
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8 INSPIRED
Technology-powered prod-
My focus is on the unique
ucts do not need to be purely
digital. Many of the best examples issues and challenges
today are blends of online and associated with building
offline experiences—like finding a technology-powered
ride or a room for the night, get- products, services, and
ting a home loan, or sending an experiences.
overnight package.
It’s my belief that most products today are transforming into
technology-powered products, and the companies that don’t realize this
are rapidly being disrupted. But, again, I’m only focused here on
technology-powered products, and those companies that believe they
must embrace technology and consistently innovate on behalf of their
customers.
❦
CHAPTER
3
Startups: Getting to
Product/Marketing Fit
❦
I n the technology world, we generally have three stages of companies:

startups, growth-stage, and enterprise companies. Let’s briefly con-
sider how we characterize each one of these stages, and the challenges
you are likely to face in each.
I loosely define startup as a new product company that has yet to
achieve product/market fit. Product/market fit is an extremely impor-
tant concept that I’ll define in the pages that follow, but for now, let’s
just say that the startup is still trying to come up with a product that
can power a viable business.
In a startup, the product manager role is usually covered by one of
the co-founders. Typically, there are fewer than 25 engineers, covering
a range of from one product team up to maybe four or five.
The reality of startup life is that you’re in a race to achieve
product/market fit before you run out of money. Nothing else much
matters until you can come up with a strong product that meets the
9
10 INSPIRED
needs of an initial market, so most of the focus of the young company

is necessarily on the product.
Startups usually have a limited amount of early funding, intended
to determine if the company can discover and deliver the necessary
product. The closer you come to running out of money, the more
frantic the pace and the more desperate the team and the leadership
becomes.
While money and time are typically tight, good startups are
optimized to learn and move quickly, and there’s normally very little
bureaucracy to slow them down. Yet the very high failure rate of
technology startups is no secret. The few that succeed are usually
those that are really good at product discovery, which is a major topic
of this book.
Working at a startup—racing
toward product/market fit—is usu- Nothing else much matters
ally stressful, exhausting, and risky. until you can come up with
But it can also be an amazingly
a strong product that meets
❦
positive experience, and if things
go well, a financially rewarding
the needs of an initial
one too. market.

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PART

I n the mid-1980s, I was a young software engineer working for

for several languages. We trained the sales force. We previewed our

working with these companies,

The product manager role

I n the technology world, we generally have three stages of companies:

needs of an initial market, so most of the focus of the young company

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