Boost Your Product Management Skills: 12 Books to Read Now
Your Guide to Unlocking Product Mastery this year.
If you're looking to learn more about the Product Management world, you'll definitely need to start reading some books this year. Alongside all the things a Product Manager has to do, you’re maybe thinking, how will I find time to read all of this?
There’s so many great apps like Blinkist that summarizes books and you can even listen to them while you’re working. It's a great way to stay engaged with the product management world and learn from the best and brightest people in the field.
Each of these books offers a unique perspective on Product Management, and provide actionable advice on how to manage and develop products in today's digital age. They cover different topics like testing product ideas, creating roadmaps, coming up with a strategy and the skills every Product Manager needs to be successful at the job.
Now, let’s go to that list 👇
Sprint
How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Jake Knapp
Sprint is a five-day process created by Jake Knapp to help teams create innovative solutions for complex challenges. This book covers the five steps process: understanding the problem, diverging, converging, prototyping, and testing. This helps teams quickly come up with a prototype and test it before releasing a full product or service, streamlining the product development process and ensuring the best possible solution.
The Lean Startup
How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Eric Ries
This is a practical and valuable approach to entrepreneurship that focuses on applying the principles of Lean Manufacturing to startups. This helps reduce waste and inefficiencies in the product development process while encouraging startups to experiment and pivot quickly in response to customer feedback. The Lean Startup methodology encourages startups to create a minimum viable product (MVP) that meets the customer’s basic needs and provides some degree of value. This has been applied to startups around the world and has helped many become more successful!
Cracking the PM Career
The Skills, Frameworks and Practices to Become a Great Product Manager
and Gayle LaakmannThis book should be considered as the bible of Product Managers. Is an essential guide for anyone looking to have a successful career in product management. It provides a comprehensive overview of the different facets of product life cycle, from product strategy to user research and product design, and gives invaluable advice on how to make a successful transition from other disciplines and stand out in the job market. Through real world examples and powerful strategies, everyone who read it will gain the tools to become well-rounded and successful in the competitive job market.
More about the author (Jackie) She writes on Substack! 👉
More about the author (Gayle)
Measure What Matters
How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
John Doerr
In Measure What Matters, the author John Doerr provides an insightful and inspiring guide on goal setting and performance improvement. The book explains the concept of OKRs - objectives and key results - and how to use them to create and measure progress. Doerr takes us through a step-by-step process for setting effective OKRs, with practical advice on communication and resources, and showcases success stories from organizations who have implemented OKRs with great results.
Hooked
How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal's book is very revealing and it gives entrepreneurs and product designers the tools they need to create products that keep people coming back. Divided into four main parts, it covers Understanding the Hook Model, Triggering the User, Action and Variable Rewards, and Investment. The book uses principles from psychology, neuroscience, and marketing to explain how to create a rewarding experience for users and keep them engaged. It is an essential read for anyone looking to build products with lasting influence.
The Product Book
How to Become a Great Product Manager
Josh Anon and
Another great book that should be in every Product Manager’s survival kit. Written by Josh Anon (Product Director of Roblox) and Carlos González de Villaumbrosia (Founder & CEO of Product School), it provides valuable insight and advice on topics related to product development, launch, and scaling strategies. The authors draw on their decades of experience in the product life-cycle to provide an invaluable source of knowledge for entrepreneurs. The book covers the entire product process, from conception to launch and beyond, and includes advice on topics such as customer validation, product market fit, team building, pricing, and partnerships. Additionally, they provide useful templates and worksheets, as well as an exploration of the importance of establishing a product strategy and customer feedback loop. This is a must-read for aspiring product managers.
Book website (FREE!)
More about the author (Josh)
More about the author (Carlos) He writes on Substack! 👉
Escaping the Build Trap
How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
Melissa Perri
In her book, Melissa Perri outlines strategies to help companies move away from endless feature-building and instead focus on delivering customer value. She suggests prioritizing impact over features, focusing on user feedback, and continuing to ship.With this approach, companies can escape the build trap and create great products that truly meet their customers' needs.
The Mom Test
How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
Rob Fitzpatrick
This book became very popular recently between business and startup owners. The book focuses on customer feedback, and explains the importance of customer interviews focused on understanding customer needs, rather than sales. Various techniques on how to conduct customer interviews, as well as how to use customer feedback to refine the product, inform decisions and inform marketing activities, are discussed.
Product Roadmaps
How to Set Direction While Embracing Uncertainty
Bruce McCarthy, C. Todd Lombardo, Evan Ryan, Michael Connors
This book outlines comprehensive product roadmapping process to help businesses succeed. The process starts by assessing the company's current market position, analyzing customer feedback and competitor activity, and interviewing stakeholders to craft a roadmap that organizes the company’s initiatives into long-term objectives. Once product-level goals and objectives, as well as the sequence of releases and product feature sets are defined, Product Managers can create a roadmap that outlines timing and milestones, and a plan for tracking progress and success. The roadmap is also used to identify emerging markets and opportunities, prioritize features and releases.
More about the author (Bruce)
More about the author (Todd)
More about the author (Evan)
Strategize
Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age
Roman Pichler
In his book, Roman Pichler provides invaluable guidance to Product Managers and business strategists on how to create and manage effective product strategies and roadmaps. He covers topics such as understanding customer segments and leveraging data to inform product decisions. He also encourages the use of agile practices when developing a product roadmap and provides advise on how to keep stakeholders in the loop.
Inspired
How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
Marty Cagan
This book is truly inspiring and not just because of its title! Marty Cagan shares his expertise and insights on what constitutes a successful product, how to create and manage good products, and the importance of product culture. He believes that companies must have the right foundation to create a successful product, including having the right definition and the right team. He promotes cross-functional collaboration, transparency, and customer-centricity as well as the four pillars of product culture: trust, alignment, experimentation, and agility. His teachings are invaluable for anyone in the tech industry that is looking to develop successful products.
Crossing the Chasm
Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
Geoffrey Moore
This book is a must-read for any start-up business looking to make the leap to success. It provides strategies on how to bridge the gap between early adopters and mainstream customers, as well as advice on product life cycles, marketing, and more. With its emphasis on targeting specific markets and projecting a consistent message, it is an invaluable resource that any business should take advantage of.
A closer look into some of these book that I physically have
One more thing!
If you're short on time, you can find some of these books in my Product Management collection on Blinkist. Be sure to join my space here 👇
Great collection. Hope I can read some this Q. :)
Great post! The Mom Test is one of my faves.