SVPG-Clients who have taken our software product management workshops or corporate training classes

“When it comes to Product Management, Marty Cagan knows his stuff. Our Product Managers come away from his workshops with armfuls of new insights and techniques. Highly recommended!”

– Pete Deemer, Chief Product Officer, Yahoo!

“Distribution of independent films using the Web is increasingly becoming a new frontier for filmmakers. Martina not only opened up this world to us, but blew the roof off. Within a very short period of time Martina's marketing strategy used all things web - YouTube, Facebook, My Space, Google, Yahoo, and email newsletters. We instantly had an enormous fan base, and it helped us find a distributor. Not only did she make a massive impact on our distribution, she is always a joy to work with.”

– Peyton Wilson, Producer & Director, Speed & Angels

“SVPG ran a great workshop. Marty masterfully balanced key product management principles, great new techniques and examples that bring them all home. Great class no matter what your experience level. Well worth it! ”

– Jim Denney, VP Product Management, TiVo

“Martina has such a deep understanding of products and marketing that she was able to make incredible impact in a short timeframe, providing a clear, concise consumer portal plan along with direct advice regarding implementation and launch strategies. She is a great pleasure to work with and her deliverables were nothing short of outstanding”

– Jeff Treuhaft, SVP Content and Messaging Business, Verisign

“I can't rate Marty and SVPG highly enough. The true test of great training is when a team feels empowered to take on the lessons given and put them into full practice. Marty's left an indelible impression on our working practices that I know will continue to be felt for some time, and has left us personally empowered and more confident in our day to day roles. Expect to be extremely challenged, but if you really want to learn from the best, you can expect expectation-busting lessons in all aspects of Product Management with pin-point relevancy to your staff, industry, and products.”

– Alexandra Pressland, Senior Product Manager, BBC Future Media and Technology

“Killer product management is absoutely crucial for all start-up companies, and Marty and SVPG bring that to the table in spades.”

– Debbie Meredith, JAFCO Ventures

"GameDuell is a product-centered company that runs one of the world's largest gaming communities. A superior user experience is our key advantage. For a company like ours, where innovation, great products and fast development are critical success factors, the cost of getting Marty Cagan is nothing compared to the opportunity cost of not getting him and the value of his input. In addition, everybody in our team loved him. His very professional, fun, and non-patronizing style immediately generated team buy-in. We have learned a lot and gained speed as well. I highly recommend Marty for all 'good-to-great' product companies!"

- Michael Kalkowski, Founder and Managing Director of Product, GameDuell

“SVPG excels at understanding what the end user wants and is able to teach that skill to product teams. They are keenly focused on building outstanding products that have a real impact on the business metrics.”

– Shri Mahesh, VP Product Strategy, eBay

“Marty is great to work with. Our company, Good Technology, used Marty and his colleague Martina for an extended Product Management training class. The result is that we have a team that is much better trained, more productive and more effective in developing and managing software products. I highly recommend using Marty, Martina and SVPG for your organization.”

– Rick Osterloh, VP Marketing and Product Management, Good

“Marty is not only a seasoned expert on all aspects of the often ambiguous discipline of product management, he is also excellent at engaging with start up teams and providing inspiration, tools and really practical help. His workshops are a combination of customised tutorial, real time consulting and effective team building.  I would highly recommend Marty and SVPG.”
 
Judy Gibbons, Accel Partners London

“Marty is THE best product leader I have ever had the pleasure to work with. He is incredibly focused on process, execution, discipline, and alignment with business goals. His management style is one of conviction, integrity, and focus. If you have the opportunity to benefit from his experience ... take it.”

– Mike Kerns, Founder and CEO, PROTRADE

“After being an SVPG newsletter groupie for many months and forwarding Marty's articles to literally dozens of business colleagues, I had the pleasure of meeting Marty and bringing him in to do his Product Management Workshop for my entire team. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive; here's one example: "Tracy- Thanks for bringing Marty to us. Marty's workshop was the most relevant, inspiring, and applicable business-related event I have EVER been a part of...I'm going to take action on several of Marty's recommendations." We were so pleased with the workshop that we had Marty back to do one of his "Jump Start" sessions with a smaller product team focused on a new product launch. Again, it exceeded my expectations and we continue to utilize and build on the output of that session internally. I highly recommend Marty and both his Product Management and Product Jumpstart workshops. In addition to the wealth of real world experience Marty brings to his consulting work, he is seriously one of the nicest, most approachable guys I've ever met. Working with Marty is like having a ringer on your team.”

– Tracy Stevens, Director of Product Management, H&R Block, Digital Tax Solutions

“I have been consistently impressed with the insights in Marty's newsletters, and the content of the materials on the SVPG site. The workshop was also full of great insights, and everything he presented resonated with what I knew about product management. I highly recommend SVPG to colleagues!”

– Benji Jasik, Director of Product Management, Salesforce.com

“The key to our sales growth was Martina’s best practices for web-based product marketing. Her insights, planning, guidance and brain dumps allowed us to penetrate a techno-phobic industry with scalable and real-world marketing programs. Because of Martina we have a more focused brand that works for us and not against us! Her valuable knowledge and expertise would be a benefit to any company interested in developing web-based product sales campaigns and longer-term brand awareness.”

- Walker Thompson, VP Sales and Marketing, The Magellan Network

“I have known and worked with Chuck through his career at Travelocity, Gateway, eBay and PayPal. He is one of the best technology and product development leaders in the country.”

– Phil Terry, CEO , Creative Good

“An efficient product development process is absolutely crucial for companies competing in today's rapidly changing e-commerce world. For that reason, we brought in Marty for his workshop and we found it to be a great investment for AbeBooks. His knowledge of the Internet and the concepts behind product management for the e-commerce environment was very impressive. It became very obvious that he's been there and done that, and speaks from experience.”

– Hannes Blum, CEO. AbeBooks, Victoria, Canada

“Marty is one of the few people in the valley who really understand the art of product management AND can explain it to others. SVPG was the perfect company to train our product managers at Shopping.com. We are delighted with the results!”

– Sarah Leary, VP Product Management, Shopping.com

“Our environment is very challenging - we are growing rapidly, our engineering team is using Agile methods, our products include a platform for service providers, a consumer internet caliber end-user experience, and an enterprise class solution for spend management. Marty has first-hand experience with each of these very different types of product, and he provided a customized workshop for our team of product managers, designers, and engineering leaders. The team loved the experience, and feel much better prepared to face the challenges our rapid growth and success will bring.”

– Aaron Greco,VP Product Management, Rearden Commerce

"We weren't sure about bringing in someone from so far away, as we have a different market and different language, but what we discovered was that the challenges of very rapid growth and building a great consumer web site cross these artificial boundaries, and SVPG exceeded our expectations in every way. It was an excellent investment in our future and in our staff."

– Jurgen Boehm, CMO, ImmobilienScout24, Berlin, Germany

“Marty's ideas come from the real world, not from academia, and not from the old world of custom or shrink-wrapped software products. It's invaluable for a web-based software company like us to learn insights from the leading online companies that only a person with Marty’s first-hand experience can provide.”

– Gilberto Mautner, VP Technology, Locaweb, Sao Paulo, Brazil

“We’re big believers that a fresh pair of eyes can put things in perspective. SVPG did just that - they came in and took a long hard look at several key areas of our business. Their findings, based on impressive industry knowledge and experience with scalability issues, were perceptive and their suggestions were constructive. Marty Abbott provided very good value through validating and fine-tuning existing concepts but also through creative thinking and offering new perspectives on how to solve problems in a different and easier way.”

- Hannes Blum, CEO, Abebooks.com  

“As a company we had long given up on classroom training as most of our experiences had been boring with little practical use. However, after reading the SVPG newsletters we decided to try SVPG's 100 Essential Lessons in Product Management workshop. We were extremely happy with the result. I would definitely recommend SVPG to any company, especially in a country like India where true product managers are hard to find.”

– Girish Mathrubootham, Director, Product Management, Chennai, India

“Marty is incredibly talented and articulate. Even those who have been in the field for 20+ years can learn from SVPG’s experiences. The training session was interactive and included lots of relevant industry anecdotes to make the curriculum interesting. After the training, our team is approaching its jobs and responsibilities from a different & improved light; it was a worthwhile investment!”

– Yuan Huntington, VP Marketing, NetManage

“I worked with Kyrie and the terrific product design teams she recruited and managed at SGI and TiVo. Kyrie has the skill and experience working in all of the disciplines required for world class product development: interaction design, visual design, prototypes, user research, market research, beta/field trials, product and program management - even software release management. Her work in all of these disciplines through many successful product development cycles means that as an industry consultant she really knows what she is talking about! Her workshops benefit from the many years of gritty war stories she has accumulated. Her broad experience working with many different engineering & marketing teams with different skill sets, personalities, and management styles makes her extremely valuable as a highly leveraged design consultant. And beyond all of this, she is also a cheerful, fun person to work with who injects energy and optimism into design teams – she really lights things up!”

-- Bob Vallone, EVP of Product Development at 3VR

“I had the pleasure of working with Kyrie for several years at TiVo, where she was the leader of the User Experience group for the Emmy-Award-winning TiVo user interface. Kyrie is an exceptional designer, and is able to balance the desires of users against the limitations of technology. From my point of view, though, the most impressive aspect of her work at TiVo was the way she shared her design philosophy with others, and built a team that continues to create easy-to-use and intuitive designs.”

– Brian Beach, Principle Engineer, TiVo

“Kyrie has a gift for user experience and a methodology to match.  Our product, our PM team and our company are constantly improving thanks to her experience and her ability to succinctly share that experience.  Her passion for the user comes thru in everything she does.  She is a great find.  We and our customers thank you.”

- René Lacerte, CEO and Founder, Bill.com
 

"Chuck helped us through some very difficult architectural
changes necessary to handle our very rapid growth."

– Jay Herratti, CEO, CitySearch.com

"Chuck is that rarest of people--a truly great CTO. He has a deep understanding of technologies at the highest level as well as the ability to integrate that knowledge into a business's strategy. He recruits exceptional people and manages them well. Chuck has an exceptional perspective gained by running top ten websites. I intend to draw on Chuck's talents now and in the future"

– Peter C. Horan, CEO IAC Media and Advertising.

“Chuck is a world class technology leader. Drawing upon his substantial experience, he’s helped us uncover hidden risks, and ensure alignment with the business’s objectives. Highly recommend!”

– Erik Kellener, CTO Evite.com

“Kyrie brings a unique combination of talent, experience, and energy to any user experience design challenge. Her thoughtful approach to understanding customer needs and working collaboratively with designers, product managers, and engineers has enabled her to help many companies raise the bar in creating great user experiences.”

– Peter Elarde, VP Product Marketing, Shutterfly

“Kyrie is fearless when it comes to doing the right thing. She is unwavering in her desire to build the best experience for the user and will push everyone else involved to make that experience happen. If you are in a position to bring Kyrie in to help your organization, I would highly recommend it. The experience she has at places like TiVo, Shutterfly, and Rearden will ultimately benefit you, your organization, and your product!"

– John Townsend, Director of Engineering at Rearden Commerce