(2025-07-02) Cagan Agency Vs Ambition

Martin Cagan: Agency vs Ambition. I want to believe that all product people are both ambitious and have high agency. But recently I’ve come to realize that this is not always the case.

Ambition refers to wanting to be the best you can possibly be, for yourself, your product team, and your company.
Agency refers to taking the initiative and the actions to impact your job, your team and your company.

The pre-requisite for strong product people is high agency, but the pre-requisite for agency is ambition.

I understand lack of agency, especially from those people that have lived under command and control systems their entire careers, but honestly I struggle to understand a lack of ambition.

The reason for this article is that recently, some people have highlighted the fact that even at the top product model companies in the world, not all the product teams are strong, empowered product teams, and even those people that think they are doing pretty well believe that they can and should do better.
Because of this, they argue that it’s essentially hopeless

even in what I consider the best product companies, not every product team is empowered. In truth, some are feature teams. Usually that’s because the leadership does not yet trust that particular team. Sometimes that trust needs to first be earned. And sometimes the issue is with the leader wanting to dictate solutions.
Nobody has ever told me they were surprised by this statement.

But the question was never whether a company was perfect. The relevant question is what is the predominant model at a company, and is that model generating the necessary outcomes?

But this logic leads to an even more disturbing question, which is why should anyone pay attention to how the top performing companies actually work?
After all, they argue, they are in a different country, or in a different market, or have different customers, or have different company cultures

Maybe we should just embrace who we are, and stop comparing ourselves to others?
This logic is what I struggle to understand.

I can’t imagine ever being in a state of mind where I stop trying to improve.

Now it’s perfectly fine to argue about what defines “the best” – whether that’s the best in sports, the best in medicine, or the best performing product companies. I have that debate all the time, and my views on what constitutes “the best” in product have evolved significantly over the years.

What I believe is really going on, even though I hate to admit this may be the case for some in the product community, is that they do not desire to improve themselves. Some people lack ambition.

Until recently, many of these same people complained that it wasn’t possible for a company outside of Silicon Valley to operate this way. But after seeing many success stories of companies from a range of industries located all over the world, now the focus seems to be on the next reason not to try.

I think it’s worth noting that of all the different types of people and product teams that I work with, those at the best companies are generally the least satisfied with how they work, and are constantly pushing themselves to do better.

This is also why we argue there is no single right way to create products. Instead, there are first principles that help guide us on the path to success.