Many product managers started their careers in other disciplines. I know software engineers, data scientists, marketers, and others with tech and marketing backgrounds who have made the transition to product management and product owner roles.
When tech, marketing , and other Digital Trailblazers transition to product management roles, they must learn new skills, leadership approaches, and lenses to gauge opportunities. Product managers must research markets, target strategic customer segments, research buyer and end-user persona needs, distill key feedback points into an actionable plan, capture stakeholder input – including demands and wishlists, and then work with agile teams to translate priorities into a product roadmap and release strategy.
And that’s just the beginning because after releasing new capabilities, product managers must direct change management efforts and grow end-user adoption.
None of the responsibilities I listed above are truly technical or marketing disciplines, though they all rely on having some background in these areas. Leaders transitioning into product management roles must learn through experience to develop practical approaches to leading innovations that deliver business impacts.
The transition can be particularly challenging for technologists, including leaders with DevOps, architecture, and program management backgrounds. They must accept that others have taken over their former responsibilities and learn several completely new disciplines.
My top books for tech leaders leaping to product managers
In choosing this list, I didn’t select books solely about how to become a product manager. I focused on ones that detail specific skills, experiences, or responsibilities product managers must learn to be successful. I share a mix of books, some on B2C customer-facing product development and others on iteratively developing internal applications. Product managers developing employee-facing products, workflows, and dashboards will benefit from the books about developing customer-facing products and experiences.
I listed the chapter names most beneficial for tech leads transitioning into product managers for each book.
Essential books for every product manager
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
This book has chapters explaining and identifying the responsibilities in key innovation roles: The product manager (10), the product designer(11), the head of technology role (18), the delivery manager role (19), and many others you find on agile delivery teams. Engineers, product marketing, user researchers, data analysts, and test automation engineers are all discussed.
Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
Every product manager should read the full book because product positioning is a critical skill set, and the book’s ten-step process is a strong framework to build on.
Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers
Every product manager should be talking to customers, and this book is one of the better how-to guides. How to talk so people will talk and Interview Scripts are essential chapters.
Another book where the full read is essential, but Law #8 (Whoever frames the problem owns the solution), Law #11 (Be different, not better), and Law #20 (Legendary Marketing Plans) are essential for StarCIO Digital Trailblazers in product manager roles.
Key reads on strategy
These two books are practical reads for product managers around strategy.
The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems
This is a practical strategy book, especially for businesses that have yet to unlock the value in their data. Chapters 4-5 on unlocking data’s value and Chapter 6 on digital customers are essential.
The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects
Today’s products need network effects to spark early adoption and attract enthusiastic supporters. Read the whole book, as it contains several classic stories of network effects and their strategies.
Lessons for every product manager from SaaS, professional services, and government
These books focus on specific segments (SaaS, professional services, and government) but have applicable lessons for all product managers.
The SaaS Playbook: Build a Multimillion-Dollar Startup Without Venture Capital
If you are building any software as part of a customer or employee-facing capability, then you are essentially developing a SaaS. The chapters on Market (on finding product/market fit) and 80/20 SaaS metrics are important reads.
Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products
This book is really good for anyone working in large enterprises and trying to innovate with new product development. The chapters Mistake: Developing Products That Don’t Don’t Solve an Urgent & Expensive Problem and the one on Mistake: Designing: Developing in a Vacuum are essential reading.
While this book focuses on government use cases, product managers working on employee-facing capabilities will learn a lot from its front-line approaches to developing problem statements.
Vision through planning, delivery, and outcomes
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
I love this book, especially the chapters on why storytelling, how to spot a great idea, and the point of product managers (PMs).
Driving Digital: The Leaders Guide to Business Transformation Through Technology
Chapter 6 on driving revenue through digital products has a planning process to help connect vision statements into agile delivery programs.
– Chapter 4 (Product management and architecture trials and triumphs) and Chapter 9 (Selling innovation to the C-Suite) are key reads for product managers.
I authored the last two books, and thanks to all the great others making this list: Marty Cagan, April Dunford, Michele Hansen, Category Pirates (Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, Katrina Kirsch, Nicolas Cole), Mohan Subramaniam, Andrew Chen, Rob Walling, Eisha Armstrong, Alan G Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder and Tony Fadell.
What books should I add read and update on this list? Please leave me a comment.
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