5 Highly Underrated Books on Product Management
If you have been looking to shift to the role of a Product Manager, then you must have at least once googled to find out which books will be helpful for you in making this transition. That’s where Google’s SEO kills the thrill. It puts at the top, books that are ‘most read’ rather the ones that have the ‘most meat’.
Needless to say, I also did the google search. And I also got the same run of the mill results. But only because a book hasn’t been read or reviewed a thousand times, doesn’t mean it isn’t good enough. So I started searching deeper and reviewing all the books published on the subject in past two decades and claimed to make you a successful Product Manager. One after the other, I picked 12 books that interested me the most and it wasn’t a surprise that each turned out to be more brilliant than the last one.
Now that I had already done all that work, I thought it was best to not be greedy and keep all of this for myself. Mentioned below are 5 books that I recommend you must read over and above your basic resources. They give a twist and a zing to Product Management and make learning fun, funny and easy ! :)
Intercom on Product Management
Rating by Goodreads- 4.29 Stars
The book has been penned by the team at Intercom, a rapidly growing San Francisco based software startup. The idea behind writing this book was to share the experiences of the team, their successes and failures, with the product managers and newbie entrepreneurs and help them draw their product roadmaps.
The book has fared quite well in both these aspects. It takes you through the entire lifecycle of a product in just 88 pages and helps you answer questions such as what to build, what not to build, whom to built for, what questions you should be asking your beta users and what feedback is required to built in. The book provides a complete summary of the activities a Product Manager must undertake in order to build a successful product.
All in all, it’s a no-brainer for any newbie product manager looking to break into product management
Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works
Rating by Goodreads- 4.03 Stars
Running lean is an excellent Product Management resource penned by Ash Maurya, founder of Lean Canvas. It is based on a simple philosophy of the author- love the problem! It is a step-by-step guide to help newbie Product Managers and entrepreneurs specify, validate, develop and introduce new products in the market. And I must add, the book accomplishes the goal the author set out- to the T.
The book majorly focuses on ‘product/ market fit’ and is based on Ash’s own experience of building Lean Stack. Ash teaches us not to view the product as your business but the your ‘business as a product’. He details several aspects of running a business and helps determine issues that are worth addressing. The book provides three basic tools on (1) plan documentation by lean Canvas (2) identifying a problem that people actually need solving using research, analytics, MVP, etc. (3) finding solutions that solve the problem and help build products that people would eventually want to pay for.
If you are a Product Manager, looking to scale up your products value, Running Lean is an absolute must. I personally keep referring to it time and again and it always has a way of making me look at my problems differently!
A word of advise, if you like Running Lean, you must follow up with it’s sequel- Scaling lean.
Badass: Making Users Awesome
Rating by Goodreads- 4.29 Stars
This is one of my personal favourites! In this less known classic of hers, Kathy Sierra has revolutionized how we look at our users. The book emphasises on crafting extraordinary experience for users in very simple ways. This, she suggests can be achieved by reducing cognitive links, that is making the user think about the right things.
In Kathy’s opinion, your end product should be so simple that it doesn’t need a manual or an FAQ. In the long run, a product that persists is the one can slip into your users ordinary life unnoticed. She teaches us to look at the bigger picture- the context in which the product was build rather than the product itself. If you can build a product that leaves your user always wanting for more- you have succeeded.
The Mom Test
Rating by Goodreads- 4.45 Stars
Rob Fitzpatrick is funny, witty and unstoppable. He is a staunch advocate of incorporating the right user feedback if your goal is to build great products. However, he says, not everybody knows how to collect this feedback (data). He says, customers are like your mothers- they will never tell you you are ugly!
In this book, he helps Product Managers and entrepreneurs collect the right kind of feedback by asking the right questions. He teaches you to carefully play on human psychology to build interview schedules that would compel people to point to the areas your product really plays down and then make an honest effort to fix it.
If you are looking to build successful products, then collecting and building on customer feedback is an important as well as indispensable skill you must strive to master and this is just the book for that. It’s sweet, nice and concise (just 127 pages) and can be read over the weekend! I highly recommend it for all my Product Management buddies!
Managing Humans
Rating by Goodreads- 3.96 Stars
If you are looking to break into Product Management then communications is something that you must master. When managing large teams (or even smaller ones) getting through to the individuals with a clear and unbiased vision can be very important and determine the ultimate fate of your product.
In his book, Michael Lopp, in a witty, hilarious kind of way tells you everything that can go wrong if your communication is off. The book teaches you to deal with people, become more socially engaged and start relating to others in a productive, non-disruptive kind of way. What I mostly love about his book is, that it’s easy to understand, comprehend and relate. He speaks my language, abuses in my voice and makes me laugh!
I recommend it as a must read for not just Product Managers and newbie entrepreneurs, but also any one who is looking to into a managerial position or hasn’t been faring well lately.
Want to move beyond the realm of bookish learning and get your hands dirty by building a real product? You have come to the right place!
Building on the plethora of evidence available on how active learning improves learning outcomes- we incorporated an exclusive experiential learning component in our course. The component is designed especially to help take you through the lifecycle of a product in realtime. The aim of this exercise is to imbibe the process of decision making, innovating, analysing, implementing, etc. to help our students develop comprehensive ability to rethink, redesign, criticise and develop a 6th sense when it comes to building a successful project. To this end, we will be teaming you up with our in-house development team, who will not only helps you build the product, but also ship it!
You can Download the Complete Syllabus here.
To know more about experiential learning and how it improves learning outcomes please read my previous blog post 4 Proven Ways to Learn Faster, Better!
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