Recommended Product Management Reading List

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, Second Edition - Marty Cagan

Currently the best foundational book on Product Management available. Although some consider this the unachievable holy grail of how to do Product Management, the book outlines the core competencies of what it means to get into the role and perform it on a daily basis.

Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products That Create Customer Value and Business Value - Teresa Torres

Continuous Discovery Habits is a great introduction on how to introduce a way of working which continually seeks to understand the users of your products and how to use an Opportunity Solution Tree which ladders up potential solutions to opportunities and outcomes.

Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value - Melissa Perri

Aimed more at businesses wishing to change their approach than specifically for Product Managers, The Build Trap gives a great view on why organisations need to change their approach to listening to their users and working towards outcomes rather than outputs.

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product - Jeff Patton and Peter Economy

One of my favourite activities to collaboratively deep dive early on into how a product or feature should work is to use User Story Mapping. This seminal book establishes the best practice on how to approach and get the most out of this technique.

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert B Cialdini

One of the largest and most exhaustive books on the psychology of persuading people to do something. Based on countless studies and observations, from both the author's perspective and others, this book demonstrates how people are convinced, persuaded and coerced through psychology. A really interesting read.

Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us - Daniel H Pink

In this book, Daniel Pink outlines how important Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are when creating an environment for great motivation. This is particularly interesting when thinking about how we craft environments for success and doing our best work together.

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders - L. David Marquet

A great story of how a US Navy Captain spent months learning how to operate a specific submarine before being transferred to one that he did not know as well. He had to completely change his leadership approach and how decisions on board were made. Something we all can learn from.

The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, et al.

The Phoenix Project is a fantastic introduction to DevOps. It tells a great story about how an IT manager at a company called Parts Unlimited must turn around his department and organise their workflow most effectively. Really essential reading for anyone seeking to understand and improve operations.

Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow - Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais, et al.

A great outline of how different software engineering teams can be set up to ensure most effective communications.

The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business - Erin Meyer, Lisa Larsen, et al.

Learn how to improve working cross-culturally, using the author's framework and clear descriptions of how different cultures can be, opening your eyes to how best to work and communicate with multiple different cultures.

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness - Frédéric Laloux

A very interesting read, with plenty of examples, about how organisations can shift to become much more collaborative, working in harmony together and giving more opportunity and input to all employees.

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman - Yvon Chouinard

The fascinating story of Yvon Chouinard and how he went on to found Patagonia through his love for climbing and travelling.

Cracking the PM Career: The Skills, Frameworks, and Practices to Become a Great Product Manager - Jackie Bavaro and Gayle Laakmann McDowell

A hugely beneficial read around the topic of Product Management and how to improve your skills and knowledge to improve how you operate and grow. Especially useful is the section around what skills are needed for different types of roles, allowing you to thrive as much as possible.

Atomic Habits - James Clear

A fascinating insight into how James Clear has transformed his life after a tragic accident when he was younger. Follow clear steps to improving yourself with different types of habit forming techniques. Great for learning how to put systems in place to be better.

Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership - Geoff Watts

Whilst not specifically a Product Management book per se, this book touches really nicely on the topic of Servant Leadership which is a core element of being able to lead and coach an empowered team, capable of achieving great things.

An introduction to API's - Brian Cooksey

This is a short but superb book which guides you through what API's are and how they work. It's a great introduction, and really helps level the field when discussing them.

Beginning Node.js, Express & MongoDB Development - Greg Lim

A great introduction to building a Node backend application with user authentication and basic endpoints. Helps to clearly understand how the backend supports the frontend, and how an express server works and supports API's. Essential reading, and practical tutorials if you want to learn how to code, as a Product Manager.