Developing a Product Management Book Club
Written by Lizzy Wang and Hassaan Mustafa
Edited by Phyllis Njoroge
I joined Product Buds (PB) in late May 2020 as a way to immerse myself in a student-led Product Management community. In Fall 2019, I experienced my first PM-recruitment cycle and knew that I had a lot to improve. My original goals were simple: to gain PM experience while not being sure what I would actually do and network with PM interns. As a computer science major on my second technical internship, I was ecstatic to be a part of this organization that can help me transition into PM. Since my internship was soon approaching and I wouldn’t be able to give my time to a Project Jam team, I joined the Book Club. We read “Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” by Marty Cagan, delving deep into topics like the product development cycle, people management, and innovation.
I found the book was easy to read and had great examples from technology and entrepreneurship. I always made sure to participate in discussion questions as well as attend live calls to hear insight from others about the content. As a result, I became one of the most active members of the book club channel. I received an opportunity to step up as a leader and grow the book club (just like a product). When we finished reading Inspired, a co-founder of Products Buds, Henrika, offered to promote me to a Moderator, along with another book club enthusiast, Hassaan. Together, we led the next book club cycle.
How the Book Club Started
A good product always starts with understanding the user.
User Empathy is trying to see the user’s perspective when using a product. Therefore, in order to improve the Book Club, we must know who our “users” are AND what they are looking to gain from this experience.
To start, almost all of the book club members are college students. Some of them are beginners like me, while others are more experienced. No matter if they come from technical or non-technical concentrations, they share the same passion for product management. Due to the pandemic, people are busy and more likely to feel stressed than usual working remotely for an internship or passion project.
After meeting with Hassaan and examining our user profiles, we sought to pick a book that everyone can understand, enjoy, and learn from. Our intent was to increase our understanding of how successful products are developed and why they are built that way. We wanted a book that breaks down the bigger picture into easily digestible pieces for our members.
We picked Swipe to Unlock by Parth Detroja, Neel Mehta, and Aditya Agashe — arguably one of the most famous PM books ever written. Not only it’s highly informative in analyzing how business and technology connect, but it’s also easy to read and appeals to people of all backgrounds.
To address some user “pain points”, we implemented a new reading schedule with “break days.” Break days give members a chance to catch up, review, and better digest the ideas before a live discussion given that following the schedule rigorously can be challenging.
Adapting to Change
In the following weeks, PB saw its membership reach 1,000. As of July 2020, there are 1,590 members overall, 174 in the book club, and 40 people signing up to attend the next live discussions.
As the Book Club grew, there were new challenges:
- How do we encourage everyone to participate in the live discussion?
- How can we make materials (book, schedule, discussion content) more accessible?
- What if people joined late and want to quickly catch up?
To tackle these issues, Hassaan and I decided to add short summaries so that people can quickly review the most important points in each chapter. Doing so makes reading more efficient, especially for those who are busy or behind. These summaries can be also viewed during discussions as a resource.
Amplifying Publicity
As membership took off, so did publicity efforts. PB’s external engagement comes from both the Leadership Team (the Founders, Moderators) as well as individual members.
The Leadership Team reached out to the authors of Swipe to Unlock, inviting them to hold a Q & A panel in early August. In fact, Adi and Parth showed up to our most recent live discussion — a big win for our book club to have these PMs at FAANG companies to share their insights with us.
Members are encouraged to post their insights and tag the organization on LinkedIn. The Leadership Team and the Moderators interact with their content: sharing, reacting, and commenting. Thus, these posts will be visible to their networks. It’s a snow-ball effect that will allow PB to reach more people.
Looking Ahead
Some of our future goals are:
- continue to provide members resources for reading (i.e. summaries for chapters, preview questions, etc.)
- keep gathering feedback from members to better structure the program next cycle
- invite more guests to participate in our discussions and maintain positive relationships with those who attended. It’s a valuable experience for the members to hear from industry professionals about their insights on certain issues.
As we go forward, we hope to learn more from managing this book club and listening from member feedback. We hope to deliver a positive learning experience for anyone who wishes to learn more about Product Management.
Resources:
Product Buds aims to be a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment for aspiring Product Managers of all social and cultural identities, as well as educational and career backgrounds to sprow, grow, and flourish. If you’d like to be a part of Product Buds, please join us! and follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the great initiatives, events, and posts by our team.
Thank you so much for being a part of our journey as we all sprout, grow, and flourish as a blooming community.
