What Every Product Manager Must Read By an Amazon.com customer | |
 | Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan Buy new: $29.95 / Used from: $26.00 This is my new all-time favorite product management book. This book is one of the most pragmatic and to-the-point books on the topic. I would make this required reading for all new product managers and ANY start-up. This book gives the reader the core tools to build a new product/service. |
 | Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter) by Dan Saffer Buy new: $27.39 / Used from: $26.45 I great simple overview of the processes of interaction design. |
 | Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services by Kim Goodwin Buy new: $39.87 / Used from: $33.49 Absolute MUST HAVE for any product manager. This covers a complete interaction design process for products and services. If you think Interaction Design is about the UI, then you are way off the mark. Interaction Design is about building the behavior of a product or service utilizing research, business validation, modeling, design requirements, and much more. |
 | The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley Buy new: $18.32 / Used from: $5.59 Excellent introduction into design thinking from a world renowned design firm. |
 | Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design by Peter Merholz Buy new: $16.40 / Used from: $0.48 This book informs the reader why the User Experience is important and becoming one of the key criteria for a successful product/service. |
 | Product Management. Donald R. Lehmann, Russell S. Winer by Donald R. Lehmann Buy used from: $54.99 Another MUST have book on the topic of Product Management. This along with the Desktop Reference are the only two books you will probably ever need. |
 | The Product Manager's Desk Reference by Steven Haines Buy new: $43.35 / Used from: $36.85 There are a lot of worthless Product Management books out there. This is by far the best all inclusive books on the topic. |
 | Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono Buy new: $8.25 / Used from: $1.66 STOP the madness of non-consensual meetings. This is the ultimate guide to running meetings and brainstorming sessions that don't end in disagreement. |
 | User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn Buy new: $36.77 / Used from: $28.26 One of the most readable books I have ever read. It covers the topic of user stories and agile principles extremely well. This is probably the only book a product manager would need on agile development. |
 | slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte Buy new: $19.08 / Used from: $11.57 One of the two BEST BOOKS on presentations and overall design principles. If you do any presentations and are using lots of bullet points with lots of words--then your presentations are terrible. A good presentation could literally mean the difference between success and failure--stop compromising. |
 | The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier Buy new: $17.16 / Used from: $13.95 Design Thinking is an emerging trend that involves companies building products and services that are better designed for the consumer and company brand. Design oriented companies outperformed their counterparts and most major stock indexes. |
 | The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization by Tom Kelley Buy new: $17.66 / Used from: $7.51 Covers the different personality types that are needed to innovate. |
 | Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $7.44 In the end your product and brand are only as good as your story. |
 | Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition by Al Ries Buy new: $16.84 / Used from: $5.90 Classic, must have on product positioning. |
 | Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn Buy new: $38.01 / Used from: $30.56 One of the hardest parts of agile development is communicating schedules to other stakeholders. It could be argued if that is really needed when everyone has complete visibility into the development process, however this book covers how to estimate agile development. |
 | Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds Buy new: $21.23 / Used from: $12.86 The second best book on presentations. Don't waste your time with any other one besides this and Slideology. |
 | Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell Buy used from: $23.96 I know Product Managers are not designers. But I would argue that they need to change and learn more about design to build better products and services. Design oriented companies are the emerging trend--focusing purely on market analysis is slowly becoming obsolete. |
 | The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam Buy used from: $6.25 The best book on visual communication. |
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