Cagan proposes a specific accountability heuristic for product leadership: judge a head of product not by their best PM, but by their weakest one. The reasoning is economic, not just qualitative — an empowered Product Team (Five-Trait Definition) gives its PM control over costly resources (a designer plus a team of engineers), so a weak or badly-coached PM doesn't just underperform, they actively waste money through bad decisions.
This gives teeth to the coaching half of "Founder Mode" Misread as License to Micromanage — the Real Lesson Is Founder-Style Leadership: a leader who only invests coaching time in their strongest people is tolerating a real financial drain at the bottom of the distribution.
Из тем: The Product Operating Model