"Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love" is a must-read for any business involved in creating either tangible or intangible products.
Written by Marty Cagan, the book details the entire product creation process—from defining the core roles of team members to product development, and finally, to marketing and sales.
Ta Huong Thao – Program Coordinator for Capacity Building at KisStartup
PEOPLE – ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Product Manager
The product manager has two main responsibilities: evaluating product opportunities and defining the product to be built.
Once you’ve identified a promising opportunity and confirmed your company has the resources to pursue it, you’ll need someone to figure out what the solution—i.e., the product—should be. That’s the core responsibility of the product manager. This person should possess the following traits:
– Passion for the product
– Empathy for users
– Intelligence and skills
– Strong work ethic
– Integrity
– Confidence and attitude
– Focus
– Time management and communication skills
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what needs to be done, and they’ll surprise you with their ingenuity."
User Experience (UX) Designer
The UX designer is responsible for developing a deep understanding of the target users and organizing tasks, navigation, and flows to be both useful and effective. This includes interaction design, visual design, rapid prototyping, and usability testing.
Project Manager
The project manager is in charge of planning and tracking the progress of the project. A project manager needs to know what’s urgent, make data-driven decisions, and develop sound judgment.
Engineer
Engineers are responsible for building the product. While the product manager defines the solution, engineers are the ones who truly understand what’s technically feasible—and they deliver the final solution.
Here’s how to support engineers and minimize friction between them and the product manager:
– Let engineers meet customers and users
– Involve engineers in exploring feasible solutions using technology
– Bring engineers into the product discovery process from the very beginning
Web Operations
For Internet services, products operate on central servers and are accessed via the website. The web operations team ensures everything runs smoothly.
Product Marketing
Product marketers are responsible for introducing the product to the market, managing its launch, equipping the sales team with the tools they need to sell, and running major campaigns like online marketing or influencer marketing.
At KisStartup, we understand that reading an entire book may not be feasible for startup founders. That’s why we looked for a more effective approach—something beyond a book recommendation: a carefully crafted summary, just the right length, that captures key messages.
Thanks to a recommendation from Phan Dinh Tuan Anh, mentor at SME Mentoring 1:1, we discovered Paul Minors, a source for well-curated book summaries. With his permission, we selected books most relevant to startups. Our team at KisStartup then reviewed the original versions to ensure their relevance before translating them into Vietnamese.
Throughout 2018, we’ll share these books with you—bit by bit—each reading taking no more than 5 minutes.
These summaries have been translated by my colleagues at KisStartup:
Ta Huong Thao – Capacity Building Program Coordinator
Mai Pham – Communications and Network Development Coordinator
I hope you find value in these books as I have. As author Ben Horowitz once said:
"The hard thing is not setting ambitious, bold goals. The hard thing is having to lay off people when you don’t meet them."
If you want to build a shared vision, become a true CEO, and stay committed to creating value—read, reflect, and take action.
Nguyen Dang Tuan Minh
Manager & Co-founder of KisStartup
Startup Knowledge, Startup Books, Startup Mindset
Tags: 5 Minutes a Day: Startup Books, Inspired, KisStartup, Book Summaries
