Product Management Books
No need to re-invent the wheel: Plenty of great authors share their insights on how to build outstanding digital products. Here are our recommendations to learn from the best product managers and leaders.
Recommendations for Beginners
The Product Book
by Josh Anon & Carlos González de Villaumbrosia
If you are completely new to product management, start with this comprehensive overview. It requires no prior experience and covers everything from product strategy and development to launch and beyond. The authors made it their mission to teach the world how to do product – and that shows in this practical guide.
Radical Focus
by Christina Wodtke
Half novel, half business book, “Radical Focus” is a practical guide to achieving business goals through Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) – the technique half of Silcon Valley uses to drive their goals. With real-world examples and actionable insights, this book will help product leaders get results and focus their team on what matters most.
The Phoenix Project
by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr & George Spafford
"The Phoenix Project" is a captivating and educational story of how one company's IT department is transformed from a chaotic mess into a smoothly running operation. Not directly related to product management. But if you come from a non-tech background and always wondered what’s going on in IT, this is absolutely worth the read.
Advanced Reading
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
by Marty Cagan
How do today’s most successful tech companies define, design and develop the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Long story short, they do it very differently than the vast majority of tech companies. If you could only read one book on product management, make sure it’s this one.
The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries
Do one important thing: make better, faster business decisions. Vastly better, faster business decisions. Bringing principles from lean manufacturing and agile development to the process of innovation, the Lean Startup helps companies succeed in a business landscape riddled with risk. This book started the whole “Lean Startup” movement.
The Lean Product Playbook
by Dan Olsen
A practical and actionable guide for creating successful products relying on practices from “Lean Startup”. Drawing on his experience as a product manager at companies such as Intuit and Friendster, Olsen outlines a step-by-step process for developing products that meet customers' needs and drive business growth. If you're a product manager or entrepreneur looking to step up your product development game, this book is a must-read.
Escaping the Build Trap
by Melissa Perri
In this book, Melissa Perri explains how laying the foundation for great product management can help companies solve real customer problems while achieving business goals. By understanding how to communicate and collaborate within a company structure, you can create a product culture that benefits both the business and the customer.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz provides a no-holds-barred account of his experiences as a startup founder and CEO. With candor and humor, he shares his hard-won lessons, including how to navigate difficult decisions, build a strong team, and stay resilient in the face of adversity. Horowitz's insights on product management, leadership, and overcoming challenges will inspire and motivate you to take your own hard things head-on.
Lean UX
by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
Lean UX is synonymous with modern product design and development. By combining human-centric design, agile ways of working, and a strong business sense, designers, product managers, developers, and scrum masters around the world are making Lean UX the leading approach for digital product teams today.
Sooner Safer Happier
by Jon Smart, Myles Ogilvie, Simon Rohrer & Zsolt Berend
Jonathan Smart and his co-authors teach us how to deliver user value better, sooner, safer and happier. A beautiful overview of practices and anti-patterns from the world of lean and agile product development. Easy to read, straight forward and with high practical value.
