(2026-05-27) Cagan The Era Of The Product Creator

Martin Cagan: The Era of the Product Creator. I have been emphasizing that the heart of the product manager job is product creation.

the necessary role of a product manager is a product creator, working alongside the product designer and engineers every day to solve problems for our customers in ways our customers love, yet work for the business.

Specifically, the product manager contributes to product discovery by taking responsibility for the value and viability of the solutions we discover and deliver.

what I’d like to do is highlight what I consider a profound shift occurring in our industry, and that is the rise of others in serving the role of the strong product manager in product creation.

With the rise of generative AI-based tools,

the new generation of tools are empowering a much broader set of people to take on this role

these have always been the very same people that I have tried to encourage to pursue a career in product.
I am personally very excited to welcome these aspiring product creators

Also, please understand that I am not suggesting that there will be only a single product creator on most products

If I’m right, the coming wave of innovation will be unprecedented.
Unfortunately I expect the non-creator product managers to be left behind.