Recommended Reading

Here’s a simple idea: projects end; products don’t. Most product managers and product leaders believe they work for product companies, but they don’t. They work in a product department, while the rest of the organization thinks in terms of projects. Your peers in other groups don’t understand why building a feature for one customer to close a deal isn’t a good business decision. They can’t understand why custom work has an opportunity cost. The authors explain how and why to switch from project thinking to product thinking. The reader will find effective ways to convey the downsides of project thinking in a product company, with specific tips on how to sell the ideas to executives.

This book serves as a valuable resource for product managers aiming to deepen their knowledge of product marketing. By learning from the author's extensive experience, readers can gain insights that will help them better position their products, collaborate effectively with marketing teams, and ultimately drive product success.​

TRANSFORMED is recommended for any organization still confusing project management with product management. This short but impactful book cuts through the noise and clearly frames what it takes to make the right products—not just deliver outputs. It explores three essential dimensions: how products are built (empowered teams, not feature factories), how problems are solved (through customer insight, not internal requests), and how to decide which problems are worth solving in the first place. If you're serious about modernizing your approach and building real product capabilities, this is a powerful place to start.

The Product Launch Survival Guide is the #1 resource for launching complex B2B products successfully. Author Dave Daniels shares his decades of product launch experience with a proven launch system that avoids the common pitfalls that doom so many launches.

The Secret Product Manager Handbook by Nils Davis is a highly practical guide that demystifies the often ambiguous role of a product manager. Davis leverages his extensive experience to provide actionable insights, frameworks, and techniques that product managers can apply immediately to improve their effectiveness.

One standout theme is the emphasis on storytelling — a critical skill that many product managers overlook. Davis explains how product managers can leverage storytelling to influence stakeholders, win support for ideas, and communicate product value effectively.

Imagine a management book wrapped in a novel. Our hero has been kidnapped to run a software venture, with too many resources. What to do? Run a series of experiments with teams that are too small and too large to see which are most productive. This is a fun read for product managers, development managers, and people managers

The Phoenix Project is a novel that seems too true—featuring too-familiar dysfunctions between marketing, development, and operations. With a revision in 2018, it’s as true today as when it was originally published in 2013.

Presented in a delightful novel format, The Unicorn Project explains the challenges of team dynamics, leadership, devops, and misguided governance.

One aspect of success that no one talks about is “organizational health.” Trust and shared goals—on product teams and leadership teams—are the keys. If you’re in a dysfunctional organization, this book provides some great insights.

Have you ever had that moment when you say, “Gosh, this is exactly my situation.” That's how I felt when reading the book Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders by Bruce McCarthy & Melissa Appel

The authors skillfully combine practical advice on communication and transparency with a fictional scenario of a product manager addressing the typical dysfunctions involved in working with stakeholders. Chapters focus on building rapport and trust, communicating plans, and adapting to change.

Rich Mironov offers a series of quick-read to explore how product management is practiced, particularly in Silicon Valley. This isn’t theory; it’s real-world lessons from someone who’s been a product leader in Silicon Valley for decades. The articles are easy to read but keep a pad nearby because you’ll take lots of notes!

Need a comprehensive guide that delves into the leadership aspects of product management? Drawing from his extensive experience, Pichler provides actionable insights into aligning stakeholders, guiding development teams, and collaboratively creating value.

The Right It shares that, even if you do everything right, you can still have a product failure. But it’s not all bad news: you can protect yourself with a pretty straightforward approach of continuous validation with micro segments. Lots of actionable ideas for getting it right.

When I first became a manager, I asked for help. And there was none. There was no training, no mentoring. The advice was to “figure it out on your own, like everyone else.” (No wonder my company was dysfunctional!) “The Team That Managed Itself” is the book I needed.

Christina Wodtke's book is very accessible. It shows how to lead a team and give feedback, as well as how to apply OKRs as teams Form, Storm, Norm, and Perform. Some frameworks may be familiar, but Wodtke ties them together in a rich story.

I love Wodtke’s approach—a real-life scenario that reads like a novel and hides the message in plot and dialog. And so many scenes were familiar to me.

If you enjoyed “Death By Meeting” (Patrick Lencioni) or “The Unicorn Project” (Gene Kim), you’ll love “The Team That Managed Itself.”