World’s most successful product managers never stopped learning. After all, continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
In a field as competitive and ever-evolving as Product Management, the best way to maintain an edge and be more effective is by upskilling and adapting quickly to the changes.
There is a plethora of free content available online but reflecting on real case studies is what that really adds to your knowledge. That’s why we have created the list of the most stellar books written by industry product moguls and experts with field-tested and actionable strategies from decades of product experience.
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INSPIRED shares insights on how the most successful tech companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Tesla—define, design, and develop successful products. Technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan's book INSPIRED includes sections on structuring the right people and skills, finding the right product, embracing an efficient yet lightweight process, and scaling and developing a strong product culture.
INSPIRED can help you grow to a whole new level of customer engagement, consistent innovation, and business success whether you're an early-stage startup or a growth-stage, or a large established company.
In The Making of a Manager (2019), Julie Zhuo (Facebook’s VP of Product Design), shares insights on what brand-new managers can do throughout their first three months and beyond to make sure their team produces outstanding results. From meetings to recruiting and managing a growing staff, these blinks analyze the opportunities and challenges that all new managers confront, demonstrating that excellent managers are formed, not born.
This masterpiece is an A-Z guide to product management. From growth hacks to strategies for building flawless products plus launching them, The Product Book gives a reality check into PM's life and is a must-read for PMs at any level. The Product Book will guide you in taking your initial steps in the product by using realistic examples that are underpinned by theoretical innovation (rather than the contrary, which is the norm!). It will aid seasoned PMs in reviewing the fundamental ideas in the field.
The book Outcomes Over Output offers advice on how to make the customers the focal point of your goals. Agile and lean development expert Seiden provides helpful guidance on using outcomes to direct your team. The book assists product managers in identifying precise customer-centric objectives to narrow their teams' focus rather than running after limitless features for your software product that eventually offer little value.
In the book Measure What Matters, you learn how to put monitoring mechanisms in place that will make it easier for you to keep track of your accomplishments, maintain accountability, and almost certainly attain your goals. Venture capitalist John Doerr introduces Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a dynamic goal-setting framework for product organizations.
Hooked explores the techniques used by successful businesses to generate user engagement and looks at the qualities of the products that win over customers. This book covers the "Hook Model," a step-by-step process that enables you to create a product that may be intricately woven into the daily lives of its consumers.
Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri is a brilliant book for those who are serious about creating an organization that focuses on results. In this book, Melissa Perri illustrates how establishing the groundwork for excellent product management may assist businesses in resolving genuine customer issues while pursuing business objectives. You can develop a product culture that is advantageous to both the business and the customer by learning how to communicate and work together within an organizational structure. You will discover product management techniques that may be applied to any size firm.
The Product Mindset shares a daring, fresh approach to product development, built on a common internal outlook that encourages focus, speed, experimentation, and invention from a wide range of stakeholders. Discover how Netflix subdued AI or how Spotify drew artists. Your organization will have all the tools it needs to reinvigorate its processes, rethink its culture, and succeed in the digital market thanks to David DeWolf and Jessica Hall.
Some of the most popular tools used by product managers are included in the guidebook Marc Abraham has put together. Every aspect of the job, including stakeholder management, product development, and consumer knowledge, is connected to specific techniques and applications. Learn to match every problem with the appropriate solution.
Despite being published back in technology’s Paleolithic era of 2008, the principles and insights this book gives stand the test of time. It takes you on a practical product management journey with valuable lessons on developing agile product strategies, and empowering support teams.
Although this is one of the best books for product managers in the technology industry, specifically, its insights are broad enough to offer value to a PM in any field.
For product managers aiming to create a product that customers will enjoy, The Lean Product Playbook is the go-to practical guide. Today, a lot of products fail, usually because the "product-market fit" is not achieved. Dan Olsen elaborates on the factors that influence product-market fit in his book, covering both the market (target customers and their unmet needs) and product (UX, feature sets, and value proposition) sides.
Still hungry for more? Join ADPList and get on one on one mentorship sessions to learn from the Product Masterminds from across 141+ countries. Book free mentoring sessions if you have more questions on product design!
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