(2017-12-27) Cagan Principles

Martin Cagan: Principles | Silicon Valley Product Group

If you’ve had a chance to read the new edition of INSPIRED (Cagan Inspired), you hopefully noticed that in this version I decided to focus quite heavily on the principles underlying modern tech product management.

Mainly I focus on principles directly related to the content I am discussing, such as principles of strong product teams, principles of product discovery, principles of product vision and strategy, and principles of product at scale.

Recently I read Ray Dalio’s new book, Principles: Life and Work. To cut to the chase, I consider this the most important business book of 2017, and I’ve been encouraging the teams I work with to read and seriously consider the principles in his book.

Ray’s book is really about three things: first, there’s an autobiography of Ray including the origin story of Bridgewater; second, there’s a detailed discussion of the company culture they have worked so hard to create at Bridgewater; and third, there’s a discussion of general life and work principles that Ray has found worked for him and for his company.

The culture is all about achieving a true meritocracy, something we all talk a lot about in tech, but most companies find is much easier said than done. The foundation for meritocracy at Bridgewater is what Ray refers to as radical transparency as well as what some now refer to as radical candor (in Ray’s book and also in my own writing, we both use the term tough love for this).