12 Must-Read Books on Developing Product Managers

12 Must-Read Books on Developing Product Managers

To all those Head of Products, Directors, VPs and Product team leads out there: we curated this book collection especially for you. Product Leadership is super hard we totally understand that and PMs can be super challenging sometimes. By reading these books you can become the best leader possible. Someone that not only excels on the product side but also on the people management-side.

Strong

Strong

A step by step guide on how to help every Product Manager on your team to grow
by Petra Wille

Why read?

Are you a product leader looking for advice on how to be certain that every product manager on your team lives up to their full potential? Do you want to make sure your product people are competent, empowered, and inspired, and would you like to know how you can best help them on this journey? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this book is for you! By the end of this book, you will understand: • Why you need to focus on the personal development of every product manager—and of the team as a whole—to unlock their full potential. • Why coaching is an important part of your job, and how to do it in the most effective way. • How you can define what a good product manager looks like. • How you can accurately assess product managers and provide them with valuable, actionable, and helpful feedback on their current performance that will help them perform even better. • Which methods/frameworks you can use to make sure product managers learn what they need to know to be more effective—enhancing their people skills. And you will be able to: • Reflect on your own coaching personality and define your own areas for development. • Efficiently prepare and use one-on-ones as your main coaching tool.

392 pages, 2020

The Coaching Habit

The Coaching Habit

Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
by Michael Bungay Stanier

Why read?

Coaching is an essential skill for leaders. But for most busy, overworked managers, coaching employees is done badly, or not at all. They’re just too busy, and it’s too hard to change. But what if managers could coach their people in 10 minutes or less?

227 pages, 2006

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go

Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want
by Beverly Kaye, Julie Winkle Giulioni

Why read?

Study after study confirms that career development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving retention, engagement, productivity, and results. But most managers feel they just don’t have time for it. This book offers a better way: frequent, short conversations with employees about themselves, their goals, and the business that can be integrated seamlessly into the normal course of business.

160 pages, 2019

Trillion Dollar Coach

Trillion Dollar Coach

The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell
by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle

Why read?

The team behind How Google Works returns with management lessons from the legendary coach and business executive, Bill Campbell, whose mentoring of some of our most successful modern entrepreneurs has helped create well over a trillion dollars in market value.

Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders throughout USA, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.

240 pages, 2019

Empowered

Empowered

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
by Marty Cagan

Why read?

What is it about the top tech product companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and Tesla that enables their record of consistent innovation?   Most people think it’s because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products.  As legendary Silicon Valley coach - and coach to the founders of several of today’s leading tech companies - Bill Campbell said, “Leadership is about recognizing that there’s a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge.” 

432 pages, 2020

The Team That Managed Itself

The Team That Managed Itself

A Story of Leadership
by Christina Wodtke

Why read?

In The Team That Managed Itself, Christina Wodtke teaches leaders how to build and lead high performing teams based on her long career in the trenches in Silicon Valley. Her book is engaging, actionable — and built around a story you’ll want to read. Learn to lead the team along with Allie as she tackles one challenge after another while the clock ticks down. How do you build the right team and choose the goals to pull them to greatness, even if you’re dealing with a toxic environment? How do you keep your people moving in the right direction without burning out or burning it all down? As Allie finds out, even in the face of overwhelming pressure it’s about setting expectations, giving good feedback, checking in against goals, and learning as a team…

268 pages, 2019

Radical Candor

Radical Candor

Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
by Kim Scott

Why read?

Radical Candor has been embraced around the world by leaders of every stripe at companies of all sizes. Now a cultural touchstone, the concept has come to be applied to a wide range of human relationships. The idea is simple: You don’t have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor―avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy―you can be kind and clear at the same time. Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership and co-founded the Radical Candor executive education company, which helps companies put the book’s philosophy into practice.

272 pages, 2017

The Making of a Manager

The Making of a Manager

What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
by Julie Zhuo

Why read?

Top tech executive Julie Zhuo remembers the moment when she was asked to lead a team. She felt like she’d won the golden ticket, until reality came crashing in. She was just 25 and had barely any experience being managed, let alone managing others. This is the book she wishes she had on day one. Here, she offers practical, accessible advice like: · Don’t hide thorny problems from your own manager; you’re better off seeking help quickly and honestly · Before you fire someone for failure to collaborate, figure out if the problem is temperamental or just a lack of training or coaching · Don’t offer critical feedback in a ‘compliment sandwich’ — there’s a better way! Whether you’re new to the job, a veteran leader, or looking to be promoted, this is the handbook you need to be the kind of manager you’ve always wanted.

274 pages, 2019

Hiring Product Managers

Hiring Product Managers

Using Product EQ to Go Beyond Culture and Skills
by Kate Leto

Why read?

For many in Product Management, success comes from mastery of tools like roadmaps, MVPs, strategy frameworks and OKRs. These and other technical skills describe what a product person does to design, build and support new complex technologies for our users. But as technologies quickly become ubiquitous, it’s the human approach to creativity, innovation, decision-making, and leadership that makes the difference in whether an individual, team, product, and even organization is successful or not. These human skills describe how a product person works and must go hand-in-hand with the technical skills.Through the story of a new director of product’s missteps as he and his team try to hire their way to become a thriving product organisation at a global financial services firm, the author pulls from her experience in product management, org design and leadership coaching to introduce practical tools that will change not only how an organisation hires, but how they think of a healthy product management culture and essential product skills. Working together, the team begins to understand and grow their Product EQ, and through the easy tools and exercises in this book, so can you.“This book is a fantastic catalyst to rethink which skills you need in a product team in order to be truly innovative - and then details exactly how to change both your hiring and coaching practices to foster those skills in your organisation.” Martin Eriksson - Co-Author, Product Leadership " I loved this book. It pin points the aspects of Product Management we often gloss over, hiring theright people. Kate shows us that human skills are a pre-requisite for all successful product people, notjust technical skills. Follow her advice and approach, and you’ll find the right product person for yourproduct team in no time.“Adrienne Tan - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brainmates

86 pages, 2020

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

A Guide for Students
by Marcy Levy Shankman, Scott J. Allen, Paige Haber-Curran

Why read?

…because this is an excellent book for students which explores the connection between emotional intelligence and effective leadership

288 pages, 2015

Drive

Drive

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
by Daniel H. Pink

Why read?

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

288 pages, 2011

Say What You Mean

Say What You Mean

A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication
by Oren Jay Sofer

Why read?

We spend so much of our lives talking to each other, but how much are we simply running on automatic—relying on old habits and hoping for the best? Are we able to truly hear others and speak our mind in a clear and kind way, without needing to get defensive or go on the attack? In this groundbreaking synthesis of mindfulness, somatics, and Nonviolent Communication, Oren Jay Sofer offers simple yet powerful practices to develop healthy, effective, and satisfying ways of communicating.

272 pages, 2018