Development
Nine Must-Read Books for Product Managers
Samantha Hamilton
Jun 27 2023 · 5 min read
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the role of a product manager has emerged as a pivotal force driving innovation, growth, and success. With a combination of visionary thinking, strategic awareness, and the ability to bridge the gap between diverse stakeholders, product managers have become indispensable in the development and management of successful products. While the responsibilities and skill sets of a product manager may vary across industries and organizations, the core essence remains the same: to orchestrate the complex symphony of ideation, execution, and customer satisfaction. We share nine must-read books for both new and veteran product managers.
Empowered 
By: Megan Cagan & Chris Jones
In, Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products, Megan Cagan and Chris Jones provides guidance to product managers, product designers, and engineers, with everything you would need to create an empowered environment. The overall theme of Empowered centers around the concept of empowered product teams. Cagan argues that the success of a product is not solely dependent on the brilliance of an individual leader or a lone genius. Instead, it is the result of empowering cross-functional teams and fostering a culture of collaboration, trust, and ownership.
Cagan presents a framework for building effective product teams while emphasizing the importance of aligning product strategy with customer needs. They emphasize the significance of understanding customer problems and developing innovative solutions to address them. Throughout the book, the authorsoffer practical advice on how to conduct user research, gather feedback, and iterate on product ideas.
Product Leadership 
By: Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson & Nate Walkingshaw
Authors Banfield, Eriksson & Walkingshaw provide decades of experience in product design and development, capturing the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful product managers. The central focus of Product Leadership is on the principles and practices of effective product leadership. The authors emphasize that product management is not solely about managing products but also about leading teams and shaping the overall product strategy.
This book covers various aspects of product leadership, starting with the role of product managers in defining a compelling product vision and strategy. It highlights the importance of understanding customer needs, market dynamics, and business goals to create successful products.
Measure What Matters 
By: John Doerr
Measure What Matters, has a broad range of first-person accounts that demonstrate the focus, ambition, and explosive growth. Doerr, argues that traditional goal-setting methods often fall short because they lack focus, alignment, and a clear system of accountability. In contrast, the OKR framework provides a structured and measurable approach to goal-setting that can drive high performance and organizational success.
Cracking the PM Career 
By: Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro
Cracking the PM Career, shares the skills, frameworks, and practices that authors McDowell & Bavaros’ peers painstakingly learned and honed over the years so that Project Managers can spend less time reinventing the wheel. The authors cover a wide range of topics relevant to product management, starting with an overview of the role itself. It explores the key responsibilities, skills, and mindset required to excel as a product manager. They emphasize the importance of being customer-focused, data-driven, and strategic in decision-aking.
Throughout this book, the authors delve into the various stages of the product management career path, from entry-level positions to senior leadership roles. They offer guidance on how to break into product management, including tips on crafting a compelling resume, preparing for interviews, and showcasing relevant skills and experiences.
Build 
By: Tony Fadell
In Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Work, Tony Fadell distills his epic career into refreshingly candid, often contrarian advice that you can put into practice right away. Build, is divided into 6 parts. Build, delves into topics around personal development, career development, the process of ideating and developing a new product, and many other topics such as: building your business, your team and tips on being a CEO.
Fadell's shares stories from his own experiences at Apple and Nest, as well as from the experiences of other successful entrepreneurs. Overall, this book wants readers to focus on users first, fast iteration, hiring the best people for the job, creating a good company culture, and persevering despite the odds.
Obviously Awesome 
By: April Dunford
Obviously Awesome: How To Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It, starts by introducing the concept of positioning and its importance in the context of product marketing. Dunford emphasizes that positioning should be customer-centric and focuses on the unique value that a product offers. She provides examples and case studies to illustrate the impact of positioning on customer perception and purchasing decisions.
Dunford then presents her proprietary framework called the "Positioning Statement Template," which helps organizations identify and articulate their unique value proposition clearly. She guides readers through the process of defining target markets, understanding customer needs, and crafting compelling positioning statements that effectively communicate the value of a product.
The Making of a Manager
By: Julie Zhuo
The Making of a Manager is written by Julie Zhuo, the former vice president of product design at Facebook. Throughout the book, Zhuo shares personal anecdotes and real-world examples to illustrate her points. She provides practical tips, tools, and frameworks that new managers can apply to navigate the complexities of their role and build successful teams.
The book serves as a comprehensive guide for individuals transitioning into a managerial position or seeking to enhance their leadership skills. It
combines Zhuo's personal experiences with actionable advice, offering readers valuable insights and strategies for becoming effective managers.
Shape Up 
By: Ryan Singer at Basecamp
Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters, focuses on how the traditional "work-to-complete" approach, with fixed deadlines and rigid project plans, often leads to suboptimal outcomes, missed deadlines, and demotivated teams. Instead, Singer introduces the concept of "shaping" work, which involves carefully defining the scope and constraints of a project before starting the implementation phase.
Shape Up, is divided into three main sections: "Shaping," "Building," and "Supporting." In the "Shaping" section, Singer explains how to identify the right problems to solve and define clear project scopes. He emphasizes the importance of setting appetite, which is a boundary that determines the level of work that can be taken on, and defining the "heart" of the project, which is the core problem to solve.
Competing Against Luck
By: Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, David S. Duncan
In Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, the authors outline how to create products that customers will choose even in a crowded market. Arguing that innovation is not a game of chance, rather, it is a process that can be understood and managed. They introduce the Jobs Theory, which provides a framework for understanding why customers buy products and services.
The Jobs Theory states that customers don't buy products or services, they buy solutions to their problems. When a customer buys a product, they are hiring it to do a job. The job could be anything from getting from point A to point B (e.g., buying a car) to feeling more confident (e.g., buying a new outfit). This theory has important implications for innovation. It means that companies need to focus on understanding the jobs that their customers are trying to do, and then design products and services that are better at doing those jobs than the competition.
