Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love 2nd Edition

Book Preface

When I first considered publishing an update to the first edition of my book INSPIRED, I estimated that maybe I would modify something like 10–20 percent of the content. That’s because there was very little of the first edition that I wished I could change something like 10–20 percent of the content. That’s because there was very little of the first edition that I wished I could change.

However, once I got started, I quickly realized that this second edition would require a complete rewrite. Not because I regretted what I had written, but because I believe I have much better ways of explain-ing these topics now.

I had no idea that the first edition would be as successful as it has been. Thanks to the book, I have made friends all over the globe. The book has been translated into several languages, and despite being nearly 10 years old as of this writing, sales continues to grow, all by word of mouth and reviews.

So, if you have read the first edition, I thank you, and hope you enjoy the second edition even more. If you are new to INSPIRED,Iam hoping this new edition accomplishes its objective even better.

When I wrote the first edition, it was before Agile was well estab-lished in product companies, and before Customer Development and Lean Startup nomenclature became popularized. Today, most teams have been using these techniques for several years and are more inter-ested in what’s beyond Lean and Agile, which is what I focus on here.

I have kept the basic structure of the book intact, but the tech-niques I describe have improved significantly over the past decade.

Beyond changing how I explain the topics and updating the tech-niques, the other major change to the book is that I now go into detail on what I refer to here as Product @ Scale.

In the first edition, I focused more on startups. In this edition, however, I wanted to expand the scope to look at the challenges of growth-stage companies and how product can be done well at large, enterprise companies.

There’s no question that scale introduces serious challenges, and over the past decade, much of my time has been spent coaching com-panies through rapid growth. Sometimes we call that surviving success, if that gives you an indication of how hard it can be.

I’ve received a lot of great feedback from readers of the first edition, and there are a couple of important things I’ve learned that I would like to address here.

First, there really is a critical need to focus on the specific job of the product manager. In the first edition, I talked a lot about prod-uct management, but I tried to speak to product teams more broadly. Today, there are many excellent resources for product designers and engineers, but precious little available specifically for product managers who are responsible for technology-powered products. So, in this edition I decided to concentrate on the job of the technology product manager. If you are a product manager at a technology company, or if you aspire to be one, I am hoping this will become your go-to resource.

Second, there are many people looking for a recipe for product success—a prescriptive guide or framework to how to create products customers love. While I understand the desire, and I know I’d likely sell many more copies if I positioned this book that way, the unfortunate truth is that’s just not how great products are created. It is much more about creating the right product culture for success, and understanding the array of product discovery and delivery techniques so that you can use the right tool for the specific issue you are facing. And, yes, this means that the job of the product manager is not in any sense easy, and truth be told, not everyone is equipped to succeed in this job.

All that said, the tech product management job is today one of the most desired jobs in our industry, and is the leading source—the proving ground—of startup CEOs. So, if you’ve got the desire and are willing to put in the effort, I’d like nothing better than to help you succeed.