Here are the books, podcasts, blogs, and other tools I recommend to everyone, whether you’re trying to break into product management, are starting a new Product Manager job, or you’re a seasoned product leader who wants to sharpen your skills.
Quick Links to Each Section
- Product Management Books
- Product Management Communities
- Blogs for Product Managers
- Podcasts for Product Managers
- Product Management Software
- Product Manager Resume Resources
- Other cool stuff for product managers
Product Management Books
I’m a big advocate of reading books and believe it’s one of the least expensive ways to educate yourself on a variety of topics. Below is a collection of books I’ve read and enjoyed and would recommend to anyone interested in product management and productivity.
Product Management Communities
- Product Manager HQ – claims to be the world’s largest slack product community with more than 7,000 members and 40 active channels. PMHQ does cost $25 to join (as of 6/6/19), but the lifetime membership gets you access to live AMAs (Ask Me Anything), in-person meetups and exclusive content.
- Mind the Product – is one of my absolute favorite resources. The MTP slack community has over 20,000 members worldwide. Mind the Product also offers conferences around the world that bring the product management community together in real life. Nothing beats meeting in real life!
- Women in Product – this is a group I belong to in Slack as well as Facebook. Women In Product is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing women with equal access and representation in product management careers at all levels. I find the Facebook group, which has almost 15,000 members, to be more engaging.
- The Product Collective – a highly engaged community of more than 8,000 members. I’ve found people asking for advice on a variety of topics ranging from how to price SaaS products to how to sunset apps and everything in between. The people behind The Product Collective also host the Industry product conference as well as produce a great podcast about product creation called Rocketship.fm.
Blogs for Product Managers
- Folding Burritos | In-depth product management guides and the biggest directory of curated PM resources on the web.
- Inside Intercom – Articles on Sales, Marketing, Support, and more
- Product Talk | Make better product decisions.
- Product Roadmap Software by ProductPlan
- Silicon Valley Product Group || Silicon Valley Product Group
Podcasts for Product Managers
- Product Management – 100 Product Managers
- The Product Experience – Mind the Product
- This is Product Management | The #1 Podcast for Product Managers
- Rocketship.fm – Business Explored.
Product Management Software
- ProductPlan – My favorite tool for creating and managing roadmaps
- Trello – Great productivity app; can also be used for simple roadmaps and backlog management
- Balsamiq – Great for creating low-fidelity prototypes and mock-ups
- Canva – an amazing tool that let’s you create almost pixel-perfect graphics for presentations, user documentation, mock-ups, and more
- Jarvis.ai – This AI-based writing tool will help you end writer’s block and create content more quickly. It’s incredible!
- Otter.ai – Another AI-based tool, this one integrates with Zoom to transcribe your meetings and take notes for you. It’s like having your own personal assistant!
Product Manager Resume Resources
Jobscan – this tool will optimize your resume based on ATS algorithms and job postings
Other cool stuff
Rocketbook Orbit Smart Notebook
I gifted the Rocketbook Orbit Smart Notebook to myself and everyone in my family this past Christmas. I absolutely love that I can take meeting notes and then send them digitally to a bunch of different cloud services. I highly recommend it!
100+ Product Management Terms You Should Know
This e-book from ProductPlan provides an easy reference guide in simple language of key terms and concepts that should be useful for product managers across the spectrum, from newbies to pros.
FULL DISCLOSURE TIME
This page contains affiliate links. However, I would never list a product or service unless I absolutely loved it. These products may contain links for shopping at Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn money from qualifying purchases which I use, in turn, to pay for maintaining this website.
