Dear aspiring Product Manager or Leader,
Don’t worry. You don’t have to read all those books.
You have my blessing to ignore the clickbait LinkedIn headlines:
10 Must-Read Books for Senior PMs!
18 books every Product Owner needs to read
15 books any Product Leader would be absolutely crazy to miss!
Learn Product in just 12 months with this self-study reading list…
For sure, there are many terrific books about Product Management. But there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all, must-read list of Product Management books. There is no single book with all the secrets. Just lots of good-to-great books – with, to be honest, many overlaps in their message – that may or may not help in your situation.
The answer to what you should read is individual, depending on your own context and learning goals. So, if you’re not sure what to read next, start with your goals! What would you like your next book to do for you? What outcomes are you aiming for?
If you can, find others who have trodden your path already, and ask them what helped them learn along the way. In my opinion, a recommendation anchored in actual experience is worth a hundred generic must-read lists, because:
You know the recommender genuinely read the book
They believe it impacted their career in a specific way
You can compare your situation with theirs, to decide what’s right for you
Their recommendation may not even be a book!
All of which leads me to a crucial point. In my experience, the foundation of Product learning is not the theory you can find in a book. It’s real-world practice.
I boil the conditions for real-world practice down to an absolute minimum of 2 things:
You’re working on your ‘next big challenge’: a relevant task or project which is pushing you outside of your comfort zone, and requires you to learn along the way.
You have at least one colleague (or peer) that you’re learning from: someone with relevant expertise and a willingness to share it. (Note, they don’t have to be a Product Manager. They could just as well be a leader, engineer, or designer, for example.)
If you find yourself missing one or both of these conditions, I strongly recommend you focus on changing that situation first. (If you're trying to break into your first Product role, the same principles still apply, as I wrote in 2019.)
Finally, if you decide to invest your time in a specific book, make sure to put the theory you encounter into practice. In other words, if you’ve made it to the end of Continuous Discovery Habits without speaking to a single customer, you’re probably doing something wrong. You could say a Product book isn’t finished when you turn the final page: it’s finished once you’ve put something from it into practice! What’s your definition of done for the book you’re reading?
And of course, if a book does rock your socks, don’t forget to share your experience with others.
– Shaun