The Product Leader reading list
I’ve been compiling for the past few days a reading list for a product leader I’m currently coaching and thought you might find it of interest as well. This reading list is organised based on the below layers of skills I’ve developed for product leaders: design, technology, roadmap management, corporate finance, people management and strategy. I’ve selected the 4 best books for each layer of skills, as well as a list of blogs and podcasts I find interesting for your continuous learning. I will obviously update this list on an ongoing basis.
Design
📖 Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days - Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz
📖 Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs - Ken Kocienda
📖 Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products - Nir Eyal
📖 Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - Marty Cagan
Technology
📖 Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters - Ryan Singer (free ebook by Basecamp)
📖 The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - Eric Ries
📖 The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim
📖 The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Roadmap management
📖 Lean Analytics - Alistair Croll
📖 Product Roadmaps Relaunched - C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan
📖 Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams - Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw
📖 Intercom on Product Management (free ebook)
People management
📖 High Output Management - Andrew S. Grove
📖 ReWork - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
📖 Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead - Laszlo Bock
📖 Turn The Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules - L. David Marquet
Corporate finance
📖 Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It - Scott Kupor
📖 Startup CFO: The Finance Handbook For Your Growing Business - Kyle Brennan
📖 Financial Management for Technology Start-Ups: A Handbook for Growth - Alnoor Bhimani
📖 Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (And How to Take Advantage of It) - William Poundstone
Strategy
📖 The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail - Clayton M. Christensen
📖 Thinking in Systems: A Primer - Donella H. Meadows
📖 The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts - Shane Parrish
📖 Lean Enterprise - Jez Humble, Barry O′reilly, Joanne Molesky
Blogs, podcasts and more
🗞 Stratechery - Ben Thompson
🎧 Invest like the best - Patrick O’Shaughnessy
📈 Internet trends (updated yearly) - Mary Meeker
📈 Design in Tech report (updated yearly) - John Maeda
📼 General Magic The Movie - Sarah Kerruish, Matt Maude, Michael Stern