2023 Reading List: 5 Books Every Product Manager Should Be Reading
Every year since 2018, I’ve released a reading list specially designed for product managers. Each offers unique insight into the things that matter most to product managers, including general lessons on leadership and tips and tricks specific to product management. This year’s list provides five books I’ve read that pack a punch and should be on every product manager’s reading list for the year. From lessons in entrepreneurship and general management to an aptly nicknamed “PM’s bible,” these five books kept my attention this year, and each one had its own insight to provide. You can’t go wrong with these books — unless you never pick them up!
And if you’ve already read these and need more material, check out my lists from previous years here: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018
5. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager by Josh Anon and Carlos Gonzalez De Villaumbrosia
With such a simple title, this book sure packs a deep punch. This book delves into the importance of product management and uses Product School’s curriculum to develop strategies and teach readers how to thrive in their roles. It’s loaded with expert tips that normally only come with time, practical advice and even best practices to guide readers.
The authors are both experts in PM education and training, and it does show as you read. It introduces you to their knowledge and does provide insight for people preparing to interview for a PM job.
However, some of the information can be somewhat general, but still useful to know, and I’d strongly recommend it more for the novices of the group rather than people who have been in their roles for decades. What’s great about it, though, is that it builds upon its ideas and follows a logical progression that’s easy to digest. It’s a great way to dip your toes into the field or for people who are considering getting involved in the role.
4. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
This book addresses startup founders or CEOs of product management-oriented businesses, but is loaded with gems of insight that can only be earned through experience. As he says, “A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” This succinctly sums up the role of product manager as well. As a PM, you’re responsible for leading a team of people without any way of knowing whether you’ll succeed, and Ries knows this well.
Drawing from experience with startup failures and management, he’s put together a book that can help you become the best manager you can be, especially using a lean approach. Even better, he does it in a way that’s easy to digest and follow, creating a smooth reading experience that didn’t leave me staring at the page, wondering what his point was. I truly believe that this book was revolutionary in its own right, and judging by the thousands of reviews let online, I’m not alone in this thought.
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
Written by the cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and by one of the most respected, experienced entrepreneurs out of Silicon Valley, this book is loaded with expert insight into what it’s really like to build and run a product-based startup. It touches upon all the essential information, including product planning and daily management. Even better, it does so with a humorous touch that keeps the book from becoming too dry. I never found myself getting bored as I read.
Topics in this book range from firing friends to knowing when it’s the right time to sell a business and everything in between — with lyrics from Horowitz’s favorite songs sprinkled throughout. Who knew that rap music was sometimes the best way to sum up management? I didn’t before reading this book.
The value in reading this book is undeniable, especially for product managers, but the message extends further than that — it’s the perfect guide for anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset or anyone in a management role.
2. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhou
One of the most commonly highlighted quotes in this book succinctly sums up the role of a product manager:
“The first bit part of your job as a manager is to ensure that your team knows what success looks like and cares about achieving it.”
This book delves into a major concern seen in product management — that people focus too much on the product side of their job and not enough on the management portion. As a result, teams struggle to coordinate, collaborate and deliver high-quality products that meet customer expectations.
What I love about this book is that it deep-dives into how to be a highly effective product manager, from how to choose the right employees for the job to how to build trust. I also love that all of it comes from the experience of someone who has learned through trial by fire. She went from a rookie manager at 25 to someone who has been responsible for hundreds of people, and she summarizes that process succinctly: “Great managers are made, not born.”
With this book, anyone can learn how to be not just effective, but great.
1. Product Management’s Sacred Seven: The Skills Required to Crush Product Manager Interviews and Be a World-Class PM by Neel Mehta, Parth Detroja and Aditya Agashe
Affectionately known as the “PM Bible,” this book dives deep into seven disciplines you need to master to thrive as a project manager and it’s one I recommend to aspiring and senior product managers alike. The authors are PMs from Google, Facebook and Microsoft and their expertise shines on every page.
Yes, when you pick up this book, it’s huge, coming in at nearly 700 pages and weighing around 2.5 lbs. However, every last word is thoughtfully chosen to drive home those seven major disciplines, including product design, economics, psychology, user experience (UX) designs, data science and analysis, law and tech policy and marketing and growth hacking. Admittedly, this book could have been broken up into seven, with each discipline serving as its own in the series, but with a 4.7/5 star rating on Amazon, people sure aren’t complaining much about the length.
What makes this book so insightful, however, isn’t just the years of experience the authors so expertly weave together. It’s that it features hundreds of case studies and hours of interviews with PMs around the world. Even then, those case studies never feel overwhelming or out of place.
Pick Up a Book — You Won’t Regret It!
One of the most important parts of being a manager is to learn the role. It’s recognizing that, as a person yourself, you can continue to grow just as you encourage your team to flourish. An inexperienced, bad or even mediocre manager can drag down even the best team with their inefficiencies or ineptitude. The good new is, being a good manager is a skill that can be developed. Effective strategies can change. New insights can be developed. That’s why it’s so important to me to encourage, and even challenge, every PM to continue striving for excellence by learning. And what better way to learn than to pick up a new book? You won’t regret putting these ones on your shelf!
