10 Best Product Management Books: Senior Product Manager's Recommendation

Product management is a challenging but rewarding field. It requires a unique combination of skills, including the ability to understand and assess customer needs, identify market opportunities, develop strategies to bring products to market, and track and measure product performance. While there are many ways to learn it, one of the best is to read about the experiences of others who have gone before you. Here are ten must-read product management books that can help you hone your skills.

Top 10 Best Books for Product Managers

1. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager

Recommendation Rating: 5.0

Customers’ Rating: 4.5 out of 5 with 463 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It is detailed and all-encompassing.

Suitable for: Those who want to be product managers and junior product managers.

Key Contents:

To become a great product manager is important to understand what the role entails and what skills are necessary for success.

This book finished by Josh Anon Carlos and González de Villaumbrosia is one of the best product management books. It provides an overview of the product management profession, including its history, key concepts, and essential skills. It also offers guidance on how to transition into a career in product management, build a successful product management team, and create a product roadmap.

Finally, it discusses how to launch and market a new product, and how to measure and optimize its performance.

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2. Crossing The Chasm

Recommendation Rating: 5.0

Customers’ Rating: 4.6/5 with 1327 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It’s a bestseller and very instrumental in avoiding the pitfalls common to new products release.

Suitable for: Product managers who seek to understand the mind of their end-users before releasing new products or services.

Key Contents:

Geoffrey A. Moore presents a model for understanding how new products are adopted by different groups of consumers in Crossing the Chasm. He argues that there are five distinct stages in the adoption process: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.

According to Moore, successful companies must first focus on winning over the early adopters (those who are willing to take risks on new products), before they can hope to sell to the larger market. This is because the early adopters play a crucial role in promoting new products to the early majority and late majority.

If you’re hoping to bring a new product or service to market, it’s important to understand Moore’s model and how you can use it to your advantage.

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3. Hired: How to Get a Product Management Job

Recommendation Rating: 4.99

Customers’ Rating: 4.57 with 7 ratings and 1 review from Goodreads.

Recommendation Reasons: Provides the necessary guide for newbies in product management.

Suitable for: The book guides you on how to best land your first product management job

Key Contents:

This book written by Product School will teach you everything you need to know about becoming a successful product manager.

You’ll learn about the different types of product management jobs, what skills you need to succeed, and how to land a job in this competitive field from this one of the best books on product management. You’ll also get an inside look at the product management profession, from the challenges and rewards to the day-to-day responsibilities.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking to take your career to the next level, Hired: How to Get a Product Management Job is a must-read for anyone interested in a career in product management.

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4. Cracking the PM Interview

Recommendation Rating: 5.0

Customers’ Rating: 4.5/5 with 1939 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It’s detailed, practical, and resourceful.

Suitable for: This book is ideal for anyone who is looking to land a product management job, whether they are just starting out in their career or are experienced professionals. The book will also be helpful to those who are interviewing for other types of positions, such as the role of a business analyst.

Key Contents:

This book by Gayle Laakmann McDowell and Jackie Bavaro provides an inside look at what to expect during a product manager interview, and how to best prepare for it. Product management is one of the most popular career paths in the tech industry, and this book will give you the tools you need to stand out from the competition and land the job you want.

This one of best product manager books starts with an overview of the product management role and the skills that are important for success in this field. It then walks through the different types of questions you may be asked during an interview and provides tips on how to answer them. Finally, it gives some advice on how to stand out from the crowd and make a good impression during your interviews.

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5. My Product Management Toolkit

Recommendation Rating: 4.95

Customers’ Rating: 4.3/5 with 81 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It’s useful to PMs on all levels but best for beginners.

Suitable for: Product managers who need broader knowledge about their field and those looking to improve user experience.

Key Contents:

A toolkit is a collection of tools that help you complete a task or achieve a goal. As a product manager, there are different types of toolkits that can be helpful in your work.

First, you may need a project management toolkit. The toolkit provides templates, checklists, and other resources to help you plan and manage your product development projects.

Second, a product research toolkit is necessary. It offers resources and guides for conducting market research, user research, and competitive analysis.

Third, You need a product launch toolkit. It provides resources and templates for planning and executing a successful product launch.

Finally, you should have an ongoing product management toolkit. It provides resources and templates for managing a product after launch, including user feedback, analytics, and product road map planning.

My Product Management Toolkit by Marc Abraham is also one of the books about product management and is a collection of resources, templates, and guides that is helpful to any product manager. It includes all types of toolkits mentioned above.

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6. Inspired: How to Create Tech Products That Customers Love

Recommendation Rating: 4.98

Customers’ Rating: 4.6/5 with 3271 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It can serve as a product management Bible. It’s detailed and resourceful.

Suitable for: This book is meant for people who want to create tech products that customers will love. It would be especially helpful for product managers, designers, and developers.

Key Contents:

Many people in the tech industry have a lot of great ideas for products, but not all of those ideas are successful. In order to create products that customers will love, it is important to understand what they want and need. This book by Marty Cagan provides helpful advice on how to create products that meet those criteria.

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7. The Lean Product Playbook

Recommendation Rating: 4.97

Customers’ Rating: 4.7/5 with 806 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It covers in-depth the fundamentals of product management

Suitable for: People who are transitioning to product management and need to learn the fundamentals of a successful PM career.

Key Contents:

The Lean Product Playbook is a step-by-step guide that will help you build better products, faster. In it, the author Dan Olsen lays out the problems with traditional product development approaches and provides a detailed framework for how to do things better.

The book is divided into three sections:

The first section covers the problems with traditional product development approaches and why they often fail.

The second section introduces the Lean Product Framework, a step-by-step guide for building successful products.

The third section provides detailed case studies of how companies have used the Lean Product Framework to build successful products.

If you’re looking for a way to build better products, faster, The Lean Product Playbook is a must-read product management book.

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8. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

Recommendation Rating: 4.95

Customers’ Rating: 4.7/5 with 2732 ratings from Amazon

Recommendation Reasons: It’s very practical, strategic, and tactical. It is one of the most purchased books on product management on Amazon.

Suitable for: If you have an idea that you want to test or need help developing products in a 5-day sprint, Sprint may be a good option for you.

Key Contents:

Sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing new ideas with customers. It was developed at Google Ventures by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

The idea behind Sprint is that by doing these things quickly, you can fail fast and learn quickly what does and does not work, without spending a lot of time and money.

This product manager book has been used by companies like Slack, Nest, and Foundation Medicine to solve big problems and test new ideas.

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9. Launch: The Roadmap to Product Management Success

Recommendation Rating: 4.9

Customers’ Rating: 4.21/5 with 14 ratings and 3 reviews from Goodreads

Recommendation Reasons: Its major focus is on individuals who have successfully navigated the product management industry and are still top players in their field.

Suitable for: Whether you’re looking to transition into a product management role or are already working as a product manager, this book will give you the tools and guidance you need to succeed.

Key Contents:

The Roadmap to Product Management Success by product school is a guide that walks you through everything you need to know about becoming a product manager.

It covers topics such as how to assess whether you have what it takes to be a product manager, what skills you need to succeed, and what kind of job market exists for product managers. The book also includes a number of resources to help you along your journeys, such as a list of recommended readings and a guide to creating a product management portfolio.

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10. Ship It: Silicon Valley Product Managers Reveal All

Recommendation Rating: 4.9

Customers’ Rating: 3.7/5 with 107 ratings and 17 reviews.

Recommendation Reasons: It’s centered on the experiences of industry leaders and provides an overview of the product management’s present situation and future.

Suitable for: It’s a great resource for anyone who needs insight and mentorship from top Silicon Valley Product Managers.

Key Contents:

The book “Ship It: Silicon Valley Product Managers Reveal All” is a collection of interviews with product managers from some of the most successful tech companies in the world.

In these interviews, the product managers share their insights on what it takes to be successful in the fast-paced and ever-changing world of tech.

The book is divided into three sections:

1. The Product Manager’s Job

2. The Product Development Process

3. The Future of Product Management

Each section contains interviews with product managers from different companies, covering a variety of topics related to product management.

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In The End

Product management is a complex and dynamic field, and there is no single formula for success. However, the product management books on this list can provide you with valuable insights and guidance to develop your own style and approach.

Also, by reading about the successes and challenges of others, you can learn what works (and what doesn’t) in the world of product management. So, grab a cup of coffee and settle in for some great reads.

Thank you for reading.