Marty Cagan, Author at Silicon Valley Product Group · Marty Cagan
articleprincipleThe Politics of Pilot Teams
14 July 2025Product
From what I can tell, more companies than ever before are working on transforming to the product model. I don’t know all the reasons for this, but I do know some of them. I’m seeing company boards taking a more active role in pushing the CEO in this direction. Their interest is usually valuation. And... The post The Politics of Pilot Teams appeared first on Silicon Valley Product Group.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Treat a product-model pilot as an organizational change initiative, not just a team experiment. Clarify how board expectations, CEO priorities and valuation goals influence the pilot before asking a team to carry it.
Why it matters
When senior stakeholders push transformation for different reasons, an otherwise capable pilot team can become the arena for unresolved expectations. Explicit alignment gives the team a fair mandate and makes its results easier to interpret.