Product management (PM) is more art than science. And as with many roles, study is useless without real-world practice. In the case of PM, reading is no substitute for shipping products with your team.
But for those new to the role, or someone experienced looking for a refresher, below is what I recommend most often. There are more leadership books than “PM” books because PM is, first and foremost, a leadership role. There’s far more to the job than that, of course, but a PM can’t succeed unless they’re surrounded by a capable, motivated, and aligned team.
General PM Books
- Inspired by Marty Cagan. Kind of an obvious choice, but still a classic (although it does feel a little dated in parts).
- Principles of Product Management by Peter Yang. Useful and practical advice for junior PMs. It also includes a couple of great philosophies that have stuck with me over time, e.g. “your job isn’t to be right, it’s to find the truth together.”
- Product Management's Sacred Seven by Parth Detroja, Neel Mehta, and Aditya Agashe. While this isn’t a great cover-to-cover read, it’s perfect for diving in and out when you’re looking for something specific. Useful to have on the bookshelf as reference material when needed.
Leadership and “Business”
- Trillion Dollar Coach by Bill Campbell. My favorite business book. This isn’t a PM book, it’s a leadership and people management book. I’ve listened to this multiple times on Audible.
- Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet. This could have been ~50% shorter, but I found it valuable nonetheless. Plenty of insights on leadership, delegation, and process.
- The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink. This was overshadowed a little by Extreme Ownership, but great nonetheless. Full of useful leadership anecdotes and principles.
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. It’s now a little cliche, but the core principle is sound. Particularly for PMs, where complete ownership is implicit. As the saying goes: if the product succeeds it’s because of the team, but if the product fails it's the PM's fault.
- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. Timeless advice on leadership within organizations (you don’t need to be an “executive” for this to be valuable).
Other Content
- Be a Great Product Leader by Adam Nash. Pithy and brilliant, this is the article I recommend most frequently. What game are we playing, and how do we keep score?
- Bring the Donuts by Ken Norton. I hired Ken as a coach a few years back and it was one of the best investments I’ve made. Absolutely fantastic, as is Ken’s writing.
- How to Work with PMs by Julie Zhou. As a new PM, this was uniquely valuable in helping me understand how other functions viewed PMs, and how I could be more effective.
Two other related thoughts…
Firstly, your strengths and gaps as a PM are going to be informed by your background. You might have noticed there’s nothing on product design above, and only a little on analytics. For me, those were strengths prior to PM, so I studied them less. Your situation might be different.
Secondly, PMs need to have a T-shaped skill set. They need to be reasonably good at a lot of different things, but uniquely good at one particular thing. That one thing is usually design (product sense), technical, or “business.” Figure out what you’re going to be uniquely good at and what plays to your strengths, and study and practice that thing.