The Product Management 101 Reading List
After spending over 25 years in product management, I’ve read a lot of books on the subject. I mean hundreds. Of course, I love to read and took an Evelyn Wood speed reading course years ago. I know that much reading is not for everyone these days so I’ve curated the best and most essential books for budding product managers below. I also focused on smaller books that are approachable for modern audiences but ones that go beyond day-to-day and into purpose-driven product management.
I’m doing this after a talk I gave to the team at Atgeir Solutions last month to share details of my experience in product management. During the conversation, I noted a number of books that I encouraged them to read. I’m sharing that list for all enterprising product managers who want to know the best books to read in order to get started in product management.
1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries— Why is this book so good? It’s kind of modern Product Management 101. The terminology of the job is defined, the philosophy of modern agile work is explained, and processes are given solid examples. This is the starting point for any modern product management staff and should be essential and early reading.
2. Sprint by Jake Knapp — Does this book cover some ground that the Lean Startup already paved? Yes, but there is also a lot of really good tactical information about how to…
