Hi there Product People! Welcome back to All Things Product Management. Today I’ve picked out my favorite free eBooks for Product Managers. Don’t be deceived by how short they are, they’re all packed full of insights and useful information. Accessible and digestible, they were written to help you become a better Product professional.
1. Hired: How to Get a Product Management Job
An all-in-one guide to starting your PM career, including what the Product Management role actually looks like, why now is the best time in history to build digital products, and everything you need to build an irresistible resumé.
See Product School's full collection of free Product Management eBooks.
2. Product Mindset
The eBook on developing a Product Mindset and applying it to every part of the product process. Learn how a customer-first mindset leads to increased revenue and lower cost of customer acquisition–durable growth happens when you make personalized, relevant products that address core user needs.
3. Intercom on Product Management
This eBook from Intercom serves as guidance on the tough decisions you will face as a Product Manager. This book provides actionable frameworks for navigating the hard choices Product Managers have to make, and advice on how to manage the compromise and collaboration between designers, engineers, markets, and other stakeholders.
4. When Coffee and Kale Compete
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) might not be the most glamorous aspect of Product Management, but you’d be surprised at how interesting Alan Klement’s When Coffee and Kale Compete makes it.
But it’s about more than just JTBD. This book tells you how to build products with compelling stories that your customers actually want to buy. It’s about helping companies to reduce waste, increase profits, and make the world better with great products. Isn’t that what every Product Manager wants?
Grab your copy here for free.
5. Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Product and Build Successful Teams
Ready to step into a leadership role? This might be the book for you.
It's challenging to take a digital product from concept to launch smoothly. This eBook attempts to answer the question: Why do some Product Leaders succeed at this while others don't? Drawing on interviews with nearly 100 leading Product Managers from all over the world, the authors capture the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful Product Managers.
In three parts, Product Leadership helps you explore: Themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristics; Best approaches for guiding your Product team through the startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of a company's evolution; Strategies and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders.
Read through an O'Reilly free trial here.
6. Building Products for the Enterprise
If you’re new to software Product Management or just want to learn more about it, there’s plenty of advice available—but most of it is geared toward consumer products. Creating high-quality software for the enterprise involves a much different set of challenges. In this practical book, two expert Product Managers provide straightforward guidance for people looking to join the thriving enterprise market.
Read through an O'Reilly free trial here.
7. The Data-Driven Product Manage
Toucan Toco X Product School bring you the ultimate guide for making the most of your data environment, and transforming how you manage products so that you achieve optimal alignment between user needs and product delivery.
You’ll learn how to find hidden pain points, prioritize development,
and better communicate your value proposition. You’ll also learn how to create and arm product champions, empower users with data, and accelerate your release timelines.
8. The Guide to Product Analytics
In this comprehensive guide, Mixpanel sets the foundations of Product Analytics and walks you through how to use them to get customer insights. From user research and analyzing user engagement, you'll learn how to use data to retain customers and help your company reach its growth targets.
9. The Principles of Product Design
InVision’s The Principles of Product Design will help you to rebuild your understanding of design thinking from the ground up. Picking up a copy of this free eBook will give you a better awareness of the best practices in product design.
Most helpfully for Product Managers, the book explains how to go about bridging the gap between product, engineering, and design. It will also help you to understand the way designers think, which is crucial for empathizing with them.
10. Prototyping for Product Managers
Here we have another great read from UXPin. Have you always just left the prototyping to the design team? You’re missing out, and so is your product!
This guide gives you step-by-step prototyping exercises to give you some hands-on experience. You’ll also learn how to prioritize user stories for prototyping, simplify requirements, and minimize risk.
11. Your Guide to Product Roadmaps
Even the most seasoned product professionals can pick up new roadmapping techniques, so no matter which level you’re at, there’s something new out there for you. Roadmaps help you to track your product’s progress and to make important prioritization decisions. They also help you to gain alignment from your cross-functional teams.
This eBook from ProductPlan shows you how to develop a winning product strategy, best practices for building your roadmap, and 9 example roadmaps to get you started.
Check out some of the previous issues:
11 Must-Read Product Management Books (full length books)