Unpacking Marty Cagan's 2024
Product Predictions

A quick note from Jean-Michel

This is the last issue of the year. I’d like to spend time with my family and recharge for 2024. And I hope you do the same.

Just caught Marty Cagan's take on a webinar (author of Inspired, PM bible). He spilled the tea on his 2024 product predictions—what he's excited about and what's bugging him.

Let’s dive in and my recommendations to increase your halo effect!

Today at a glance

• 🧐 Behavioral Science in PM Predictions

• 🔮 Marty’s 2024 Predictions

• Juicy Weekly Picks

• Trending Product Tools

🤝 A message from JIRA Product Discovery

From ideas to impact, build what matters

Elevate Your Product Game with Jira Product Discovery! Capture, prioritize, and align your product team seamlessly in Jira. Maximize innovation.

Recent issues you may have missed

👉️ Build a Winning Product Strategy (Link)
👉️ 7 Mental Models for Clear Problem Framing (Link)
👉️ Get in the head of a PM Hiring Manager (Link)

🧐 Behavioral Science in PM Predictions

The availability heuristic is the tendency to rely on readily available information when making predictions. Individuals may give more weight to information that is easily accessible or memorable, rather than considering a broader range of data, leading to inaccuracies in predicting future events.

So when you brainstorm about strategy or use your product sense…Keep this in mind…

YES, predicting is hard but let’s just try…shall we???

🔮 Marty’s 2024 Predictions

Product Managers' Role Makeover

• 💡 Wish: Marty's crossing his fingers for Product Managers (PMs) to move away from being feature team managers stuck in a project management mindset and transform into actual value-creating PMs.

• Fear: He's worried that CEOs might start thinking PMs aren't all that valuable. Picture this: they kick out all the product managers, and nothing seems to change.

• ✅ Here's my take
  Marty's worry is a wake-up call. It shouts, "Hey, remind everyone how awesome PMs are!" From what I've seen, it's not just about the day-to-day tasks; it's about showcasing the real impact of product management. Let's get PMs thinking beyond features and focus on creating solid value for the company and its customers.

Product team

• 💡 Marty's hoping more companies get on board with cool, empowered product teams instead of old-school feature teams. But, here's the fear: what if leaders go back to being all bossy and don't buy into the power of autonomous product teams?

• ✅ Here's my take
  When product teams get the green light to try things out, following Teresa Torres's advice about tracking progress on both problems and opportunities, it's a game-changer:

  • Focus on the key features that lines up with big-picture goals, not just random features.

  • If teams are just building things without caring about whether users are actually using them, Marty's fear might just sneak up on us one day.

Product Ops

• 💡 Marty's rooting for more people to jump on the Product Ops bandwagon, helping product teams make quicker and smarter decisions—both qualitative and quantitative. But, hold up, he's worried people might get stuck in processes and governance.

• ✅ Here's my take
  Product Ops is the way to go for crafting a system that cranks out successful products on a big scale. It's going to be a star in 2024. No worries about getting bogged down in the process; To get it, someone's got to break down the basics (think crunching numbers, understanding qualitative insights, and using the right tools) and why it all needs to live under one roof. Check out the key elements in Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles's book, "Product Operations," for more...

Role of Customers

• 💡 Marty's crossing his fingers that more product teams get back to the basics—talking to customers. But, he's got a fear: What if teams start thinking they've got it all figured out by drowning in a sea of data, especially when they focus on low-value stuff like optimization testing?
  […]