25 Must-Read Product Management Books for 2024

You never stop learning as a product manager whether you’re a beginner or a veteran. In fact, success in product management is frequently due to a person’s natural curiosity and desire to discover more.

That’s the very nature of product management. It evolves every day, and to stay on top of the game, you need to be updated with the latest developments. Common ways to do so are by joining various communities, watching videos, and subscribing to blogs.

But of all kinds of PM resources, product management books are the best. Good product manager books contain real-world experiences which will take you through the author’s journey, thus helping you become a better at your job.

In this article, you’ll find 25 such product management books handpicked to be on your must-read list.

1. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager

The Product Book by Josh Anon (former Pixar PM) and Carlos Gonzázle de Villaumbrosia (CEO of Product School) is a best-seller on Amazon and is regarded as one of the best product management books. 

The book about product management teaches you everything – how to ace interviews, improve your communication skills, and, of course, how to build a successful product. The book’s USP is that it provides approachable practical and real-life insights into the world of product management. 

Product School, an international training platform for project managers, created The Product Book which became one of the best SaaS product management books for beginners. Therefore, it’s a real deal for new as well as experienced product managers.  

2. Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love

Inspired by Marty Cagan is one of the best books on product management that answers the most important question for any tech company: How to create a successful tech product that customers love.

It covers the most valuable lessons on product management and talks about how tech companies like Google, Netflix, and Amazon build valuable products for their customers which makes it one of the best SaaS product management books. 

From small startups to large enterprises, Cagan has shared every life lesson that he has learned during his career. If you are looking to level up your career in this field, this is just what you need.

Suggested Read: Want to Become a Product Coach?

3. The Lean Product Playbook

The Lean Product Playbook is one of the best product management books because of its comprehensiveness. This go-to guide for product managers is authored by Dan Olsen who is a seasoned tech consultant and an expert in product management and lean startup. 

This top product management book gives step-by-step guidance on how to apply lean startup ideas to your new product. It also talks about the unique and actionable product-market fit model considering the product (UX, features, and value proposition) and market (target audiences). 

As one of the best books for product management, its unique selling point is that it uses real-world examples to teach how to iterate based on customer feedback. Overall, PMs who want to iterate and learn product-market fit will benefit greatly from the Lean product playbook.

4. Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matter

Shape Up is one of the best books about product management specifically for product development teams by Ryan Singer. Ryan has over 17 years of experience as a Head of Strategy at Basecamp. 

It provides practical tips for teams that are stuck in the middle or don’t know where to begin, making it one of the best product management books with practical utility. The main selling point is that it covers various workflows and techniques that Basecamp has used to build its most successful products over the years. 

For new teams, this product manager book provides guidance on how to shape the project first and then bet on it later for completion. It is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about the Agile process and how to implement effective strategies during product development. 

You can get this best product management book for free on Basecamp’s website.

5. Crossing the Chasm

Also called the bible for product teams, Crossing the Chasm is an entrepreneurial book on product management that was published in 1991 by Geoffrey Moore and gained a lot of popularity among product marketing managers. 

The fact that it still holds relevance after 30 years proves that it is a must-read product management book. It cites various reasons why some products turn out to be huge successes in the market and is also a great product lifecycle management book.

Geoffrey talks about crossing the chasm in this product manager book which refers to a vast gap between the early market of Innovators and early adopters and the customer adoption lifecycle. Those who cross this chasm are the successful ones. 

The book has three editions: Crossing the Chasm, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, and Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers.

6. The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea...

People say that you shouldn’t ask your mom if your business idea is good enough as she would lie to you. (Because she loves you.) The truth is that everyone would lie to you a little. (At least, with a question like this). In fact, it is our responsibility to find the right answer using a good set of questions. 

That’s what The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick teaches us. This book for product management covers a set of simple rules to ask and frame good questions that even your mom can’t lie to you about. 

Fitzpatrick cites the importance of gathering feedback and talking to the customers as a prerequisite for a successful product.

7. Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success

As the name suggests, Outcomes Over Output talks about focusing on the results over volume to build and iterate the product based on customer feedback in an organization. Outcomes over Output is a product management book authored by Josh Seiden that differentiates between leading by output vs leading by outcomes. 

The product manager book helps teams identify specific customer behaviors to determine their efforts. This would ensure a streamlined work process, reduced chances of rework, and customer satisfaction.

Outcomes before Output, published less than a year ago in 2019, is one of the most recent books for product managers that you should definitely give a try.

8. Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth

Measure What Matters is a book written by one of the earliest inventors of Google – John Doerr. 

Regarded as a book every product manager should read, he talks about the revolutionary goal-setting system: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Various tech giants like Intel, Google, Amazon, and Uber have used this goal-setting system over the years. 

John recognizes the importance of a system like OKR and how it has led to its explosive growth. 

This is definitely a must-read book for product managers at any level of organization in order to iterate their product successfully.

9. Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value

Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Peri is an absolute classic and one of the best product management books. As the title suggests, the book teaches about escaping the build trap or the pitfalls where Product managers or companies fall. 

In this product manager book, we get to know about Melissa Peri's product strategy. She believes in cultivating a customer-centric product rather than focusing on too many outputs that offer little value and waste your precious time. This digital product management book is a gem for those who want to build a culture that focuses on outcomes over outputs.

10. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Hooked is a product management book written by Nir Eyal who lays the practical guide on how to build better products. The book talks about the Hook model which companies must adapt to encourage customer behavior without any aggressive marketing campaigns. 

This model will help PMs, marketers, or designers explain how to build products that form customers’ habits so they come back for more. The product management best book is divided into 5 broad chapters where each chapter talks about different stages of hooking the customers.

11. Product Mindset: How to Get Inside Your Customer’s Mind

To create a product that customers love, you must first comprehend their psychology. 

Companies must gain insight into the minds of their customers in order to create a successful product. Product Mindset book teaches you to acknowledge your customers’ pain points, life circumstances, and mental states. 

This best product manager book explains how Netflix made use of artificial intelligence, how Spotify wooed customers, and how to elicit psychological responses. 

This book on modern product management process is a gold mine for project managers, as it contains insider secrets and practical advice from project managers at companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Pandora, among others.

12. Ship It: Silicon Valley Product Managers Reveal All

As a product manager, you cannot merely work on your instincts. PMs are not psychic and hence they must gather data and know the needs of their users. Finally, you should learn the ways to communicate with your team and pass on the vision to them. 

This is what Ship It talks about. It has all the top secrets from the PMs in Silicon Valley making it one of the best PM books. 

This product manager book explains the challenges and responsibilities of product managers with tips on how to deal with them. It contains secrets from the PMs of top companies like Facebook, Reddit, Dropbox, and so on.

13. The Making of Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

Leading a product team for the first time could be a daunting task. The Making of a Manager is a book written by top tech executive, Julie Zhuo. In this product leadership book, she talks about her experience of becoming a product manager at the age of 25 and the challenges associated with it. 

This bestseller reveals the top tactics on how to lead a product team and be the best product manager. Julie Zhuo is definitely one of the best books about product management as she has over 11 years of experience as the VP of Product Design at Facebook.

14. The Lean Startup

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a modern-day product management book for entrepreneurs and product managers in tech giant companies that discusses building products on behalf of an existing company or the method used to find a new company. 

Regarded as one of the best PM books to read, Eric discusses the process of testing your customers’ visions, listening to customers, and providing them with real value in order to adjust and adapt to a changing ecosystem before it’s too late.

15. Continuous Discovery Habits

The book "Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value" by Teresa Torres offers helpful guidance on how to instill a discovery habit within your company.

Through this book, you will learn how to begin with product discovery with a specific goal in mind, conduct interviews to discover opportunities, and use assumption tests to evaluate potential solutions fast.

Moreover, you will gain insights how to use an opportunity solution tree to visualize your work and keep your product trio coordinated and your stakeholders enageged.

Suggested Read: Key Takeaways from Continuous Discovery Habits

16. The AI Product Manager's Handbook: Develop a product that takes advantage of machine learning to solve AI problems‍

Irene Bratsis, serving as the Director of Digital Product & Data at IBWI, authored "The AI Product Manager’s Handbook," a vital resource for product managers specialising in Artificial Intelligence. 

This book is tailored for professionals aiming to integrate AI into their product offerings. It provides insights on creating future-ready AI products with limited resources, identifying potential applications of AI to fulfill business requirements, and working effectively with diverse teams to develop and implement AI-driven products.

Suggested Read: Top 7 AI Product Management Books

17. Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

“Build” by Tony Fadell is one of the best books on Product management covering key themes including the importance of understanding the "why" behind a product, the value of hiring a diverse team, and the role of a CEO in pushing employees to excel without coddling them. 

The book is designed to help readers with current problems they face, such as securing funding for a startup, deciding whether to quit a job, or handling difficult colleagues. Overall, "Build" is a practical guide offering insights into successful product development, team building, and leadership, making it a valuable read for anyone in the business or entrepreneurial field.

18.  Strong Product People: A Complete Guide to Developing Great Product Managers‍

Strong Product People: A Complete Guide to Developing Great Product Managers by Petra Wille is widely regarded as one of the best books on product management. Targeted at product leaders, it can be considered as a product roadmap book for enhancing the skills and effectiveness of product management teams. The book is neatly organised into five distinct sections, each tackling a critical aspect of cultivating and managing a successful product management team.

Petra Wille, drawing from her extensive experience, imparts actionable advice and insights that are firmly grounded in practical scenarios. This aspect makes the book an essential resource, particularly beneficial for those who are newly stepping into the role of managing product managers or are in pursuit of refining their approach with existing teams

19. The Product Momentum Gap: Bringing together product strategy and customer value‍

Andrea Saez and Dave Martin's The Product Momentum Gap: Bringing together product strategy and customer value is widely recognized as one of the top books on product management. The book provides essential guidance for leaders who aim to integrate their product strategy seamlessly with customer value. It addresses the critical issue of the Product Momentum Gap, a challenge that can impede sales and dilute organisational focus.

Renowned for its practicality, "The Product Momentum Gap" includes numerous actionable steps and real-world examples. It serves as an invaluable resource for guiding business leaders out of the Product Momentum Gap and towards a path of success.

20. Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale‍

Product Operations by Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles serves as an essential resource for product managers, business analysts, product owners, and those involved in marketing, sales, or UX design. Its purpose is to deepen the understanding of the entire product life cycle. The book is especially beneficial for leaders and executives of SAAS scale-ups and large corporations. It delves into the Three Pillars of Product Operations, encompassing Data and Insights, Customer and Market Insights, and Process and Governance.

The book stands out as an in-depth guide on the subject of Product Operations. It targets organisations that are in the process of expanding their product management capabilities, providing them with strategic guidance and practical knowledge to grow these functions effectively.

21. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days‍

Sprint written by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, is a book for entrepreneurs and leaders who face big questions every day. The book answers the most important questions of all time: where to put your focus, your effort and how to start? What becomes of your idea in real life and how many meetings does it take to reach the right solution?

While the answer is simple: “Design Sprint” which was designed by Jake Knapp who created a 5 day process at Google where sprints were used on everything. If you are looking for a practical guide for answering critical business problems, you should definitely give it a try.

22. Well Designed by Jon Kolko: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People

Well designed by Jon Kolko (Co-Founder & Partner, Narrative), clearly states that today’s consumer needs engagement in order to be swayed to interact, connect and buy your next offering.

Well Designed is a concrete addition to "design thinking" space; the book includes a clear process that readers can follow and use. If you are someone who is involved in developing new products or services - including marketers, designers and product development teams then this book is for you.

23. Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products, by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones

Empowered written by Marty Cagan & Chris Jones, is a definite read for those becoming or are already leaders in Product Management, product design or engineering. The goal of empowered is to provide folks with everything they will need in order to create an environment about how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products.

The book puts decades of lessons learned from the best leaders of the top technology companies in your hand as a guide. It shows you how to become the leader your team and company needs to not only survive but thrive.

Suggested Read: Top courses for AI Product Management

24. Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction While Embracing Uncertainty

C. Todd, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan, and Michael Connors have authored Product Roadmaps Relaunched a comprehensive guide on developing impactful product roadmaps.

This book is a must-read for product managers as it shows the way to utilise these roadmaps for aligning stakeholder interests and prioritising concepts and demands. It teaches you the art of conveying the value your products will bring to both customers and your organisation, focusing on how to build a customer-centric product roadmap.

25. Reimagined: Building Products with Generative AI

Reimagined, a book written by Shyvee Shi, Caitlin Cai and Dr. Yiwen Rong speaks volumes about how important it is to incorporate AI into products. While the book only has a kindle edition, it is a must read in this transformative journey.

Spanning over 150+ real-world examples, 30+ detailed case studies, and 20+ practical frameworks, Reimagined offers a comprehensive approach to integrating generative AI into your product strategy and career.

The list of the best product manager books to read will help you understand what it means to be a product manager, crack interviews, and learn and upskill from some of the best brands and PMs of the software industry.

Apart from the best product management books, you also need the right product management tools that will help you run and manage all the processes.

Zeda.io is a super app for product teams that will help you put everything you learn from the above books into practice. From collecting customers’ feedback to tracking usage data, you can manage all your processes from here. Furthermore, you can bring data from your existing tools to Zeda.io through various integrations to get started in no time.

Start your free trial today.

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FAQs

1. What should product managers read?

It depends on what you are looking for. For instance, if you want to become a product manager, you should read “Hired”, one of the best product management interview books. If you focus on learning how big players manage their products, “Ship it” will be a better option.

2. What is the hardest part of product management?

Organizational communication, team alignment, and managing various responsibilities are considered the most difficult parts of product management. You can easily deal with these challenges by reading the best books in product management like “Crossing the Chasm”, and “Product Mindset”.

3. What are the 4 Ps of product management?

Product, price, process, and people are the 4 Ps of product management.

4. What are the 4 product layers?

Core, tangible, augmented, and promised are the four product layers.

5. How difficult is product management?

As it demands a lot of skills on a seasoned level, managing products can be challenging. However, with the right knowledge and tools, you can run all the processes easily.

6. How do I become a product manager with no experience?

Start by reading the best books for product management interviews such as “Hired”.  As a beginner in the field, you will begin from the intern level and can work your way up from there.

7. Is coding required for product management?

Not necessarily. Product management requires you to understand the processes enough so you can guide them through various phases of the development process.

8. What are the 3 major areas of product management?

Discovery, planning, and development are the three major areas of product management.

9. What are the top 3 skills for a product manager?

Communication, team management, and prioritization are the top three skills for a product manager.