Inspired by Andy Nortrup’s thorough posting, I’ve dusted off my own recommended reading list. It doesn’t have reviews or feedback, just raw links. An interesting attribute of the times is that product management is recognized as an important function, but it’s not narrowly defined. That leaves a lot of latitude for recommending preparatory materials, and different lists have very different mental models of what a PM is going to do.
My approach to this has altered over the years as I’ve run more PM internships and mentored line PMs to avoid my mistakes and make their own. Specifically, I like to provide research pointers like this instead of prescriptive shortcuts; nothing kills the joy of discovery like forced march reading. While there’s a lot of interesting material here, it’s not all going to work for a given reader at the time they first see it. So poke around, find what works for you. If you’re coming from a STEM background, you may not need as much math and finance grounding as I have needed.
Product Manager Reading List
My Goodreads lists:
Specific to the discipline of product management
Specific to leadership and teamwork
Passing knowledge of domains we influence and are influenced by
Secrets of Question Based Selling
This is Marketing
The Design of Everyday Things
In The Beginning Was The Command Line
Statistics Done Wrong
Financial Intelligence
The Tao of Statistics
Data Visualization
Why New Systems Fail
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