Practical. Blunt. Occasionally Useful
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“Every Product Manager should have this book within arm’s reach! Leading product is a profoundly multifaceted craft, and this guide covers every challenge, relationship, and process you’ll face; and it does so in a clear, concise, and structured manner. This book will become your trusted confidant, something you return to again and again.”
Bill Roberts
Former Product: Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Unity
You got the PM job. Congratulations. Now what?
Most product management books assume you already know what you're doing, which is adorable.
After spending over twenty years in the trenches, I wrote this so you don't have to learn everything the hard way.
A sample of what actually matters:
Learning how to say no
Leading without formal authority
Performing product and people inventories
Making decisions in the absence of data
Navigating tricky stakeholder relationships
Decoding why estimates are always wrong
Validating ideas so you don't build the wrong thing
This book is not a theoretical fantasy.
It is a battle-tested field guide for new product managers that combines brutal honesty with practical guidance, together with far more laughs than you'd expect from a business book.
It's what you need to survive and occasionally thrive in this delightfully messy profession.
It doesn't lie to you about any of it.
Brace yourself
"I enjoyed it so much more than any other non-fiction book I've ever read!
It was also so much fun, I couldn't stop chuckling."
"Afterwards, I gave it to my boyfriend to read, to understand what the heck product management is."
Anais Roger-Evans
Senior Product Manager - Evermore Ventures
Welcome to product management.
Here's your survival guide.
What Makes This Different
It's actually practical. Instead of impractical frameworks, you get methods to deal with the situations you'll face tomorrow. Like how to say no to leadership, or what to do when a dev goes off script and builds what they want.
It's designed for how you work. Fifty-eight focused chapters averaging 5 pages each. Read a complete topic during your lunch break. Find answers when you need them.
It covers the complete journey. From your first day through advanced team leadership. Everything from decoding PM speak to validating your product hypothesis to mastering the demo.
What You'll Learn
Starting Out: What a PM actually does (beyond the job description ambiguity). Where your responsibilities start, stop and are open for negotiation.
Ramping Up: How to take inventory of your product and team, and what is really driving your product decisions.
Facing Hard Truths: You're a leader whether you like it or not, compromise is inevitable, you're always selling, and saying no is the hardest part of the job.
Working with Stakeholders: How to build credibility with developers, deal with leadership, and get to grips with the messy human side of being a PM.
Rigorous Research: Specific methodologies for discovering what customers value, interpreting the data, and understanding competitive threats.
Building Your Product: Discover what product management actually is: Unglamorous, essential work of turning ideas into software that people can actually use.
Shipping Your Product: How to prepare for product launches, coordinate with teams, and finally see the difference between your vision and customer reality.
Advanced Skills: Why you should learn to code (and how much is enough), how to master the demo, and leveraging technology for PM work.
Plus: PM Terms Decoded - a comprehensive guide to acronyms and terminology with translations of what they actually mean in practice.
Perfect For
New product managers (0-3 years of experience) navigating day-to-day challenges
Recent career changers who've landed their first PM role
Product owners looking to step up into product management roles
Recent PM bootcamp graduates and MBA students entering product roles
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