PM Search Engine
Articles recommended/written by PMs at Google, FB + almost every other major tech co/startup.
📰
Articles
15 timeless articles
Product Management 101
17-part course on PM basics
Product Management Annual Lists
Various articles and summaries about Product Management. Sebastien Phlix has compiled a couple years of these reading lists, but I find that 2018 was the best!
How to hire a product manager by Ken Norton (Figma)
When hiring product managers, look for candidates who are very smart even at the expense of experience. Screen for product instincts, which is a difficult skill to train. Ensure the candidate can understand the importance of earned leadership.
Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager by Ben Horowitz (a16z)
Although outdated, this article is a classic read that divides good PMs from bad PMs
What distinguishes the top 1% of PMs from the top 10%? by Ian McAllister
Top 1% Product Managers excel at the following skills: Think big, communicate, simplify, prioritize, forecast and measure, execute, understand technical trade-offs, understand good design, write effective copy
Should I Become a Product Manager? by Hemal Shah
You should choose a career in product if you’re obsessed about your customers and the problems they have. Becoming a product manager is less like becoming a “CEO of a product,” and more like becoming the conductor of an orchestra. You need to be good at: execution, win with a team, have vision & discipline. To become a great PM, you need to focus on the following: knowing your customers, obsessing about the design and experience for the user, and becoming a great storyteller
What is Success for a Product Manager? by Prabu Dhaksh
A PM is responsible for building products by performing 4 key responsibilities: Identity Needs, Build a viable product, Sell and be profitable, roadmap to the future
3 types of knowledge a product manager should seek
There are three key categories of Knowledge that a Product Manager should have to effectively operate. 1. Organizational Knowledge 2. Product Knowledge 3. Industry Knowledge The primary job a product manager brings to the table is communication. They have to be an excellent communicator, able to communicate the same core message to various audiences
12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory
Avoid being in a feature factory at all costs
WTF is a product manager? by Ernest Kim
"Okay, so if a designer designs and a developer develops, what does a product manager do? The most succinct answer I can give is this: A product manager defines the job that a product must do in order to succeed." "In short, it doesn’t matter if the answer is right if the question you set out to answer is wrong. It’s the job of the product manager to ensure that the product team is working to answer the right question(s)."
Lessons learned from scaling a product team by Paul Adams
Key takeaways from Intercom's product process. 1) They have a set of guidelines for making decisions 2) They demand clear accountability 3) They obsess over our lightweight, transparent roadmap 4) They have a culture of goal setting
So you want to manage a product? by Rohini Vibha
Product management is not as sexy as it sounds. The four main themes: 1) You’re not managing a product. You’re managing the problem it solves. 2) Your product is only as good as a user’s perception of it. 3) Product Managers are neither designers nor engineers. 4) It’s not about being a star — It’s about managing a universe.
Be a Great Product Leader by Adam Nash
Product Management boils down to 3 key responsibilities: 1) Product Strategy 2) Prioritization 3) Execution
What are the best ways to prioritize a list of product features? by Ian McAllister
Prioritization is a key responsibility of product management. First determine which themes the business should focus on, then rank the top 3 themes to focus on now, then generate projects for each theme, estimate value then estimate cost, and finally prioritize projects within each theme. This enables you to focus on prioritizing within a theme rather than prioritizing against two disparate projects