A curated list of awesome resources for product/program managers to learn and grow.
By definition, a product manager is an individual who drives the product vision and has a deep understanding of customer needs. PMs generally are considered to be at the intersection of the business, technology and and design spaces - they are the experts in the problem space, and are able to learn and iterate quickly to deliver valuable experiences to consumers.
In day-to-day activities, product managers need to rely on tools to help them make sense of the information and insights they're handling. The list below represents some of those tools. A product manager doesn't need to use every single one of them, and neither is one better than the other. These are just pointers to some of the instruments that can be used to be effective at organizing and sharing PM expertise. None of them, standalone, will make one a better product manager.
Efficient note-taking with superior organizational capabilities. Integrates easily with team-based workflows, where notes from the same notebook can be shared with many individuals.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Cost | Free |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web |
| URL | https://onenote.com |
Note-taking in Markdown format, with tag-based organizational capabilities.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Shiny Frog |
| Cost | Freemium ($16/yr subscription available) |
| Platform | macOS, iOS |
| URL | https://bear.app/ |
Kanban-style boards to manage work items. Integrates well with teams and other services. Has a rich extensibility platform.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Atlassian |
| Cost | Freemium ($9.99/mo+ subscriptions available) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web |
| URL | https://trello.com/ |
Taiga is a project management tool for multi-functional agile teams. It has a rich feature set and at the same time it is very simple to start with through its intuitive user interface.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Kaleidos |
| Cost | Free (self-hosted) or Freemium |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web |
| URL | https://tree.taiga.io |
A tool to quickly manage "to-dos".
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Cost | Free |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web |
| URL | https://to-do.microsoft.com/ |
All-in-one workspace for teams and individuals.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Notion Labs |
| Cost | Freemium ($4/mo/user individual, $8/mo/user teams) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web |
| URL | https://notion.so/ |
Wireframing tool that allows building mocks without a strong focus on details. Extremely useful for situations where you don't want others to over-index on pixels and instead focus on the content.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Balsamiq Studios, LLC |
| Cost | Paid ($89/person - permanent license) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, web |
| URL | https://balsamiq.com/ |
Mocking and prototyping made efficient. Offers many downloadable components that can help one create high-fidelity designs for websites, apps and other experiences.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Bohemian B.V. |
| Cost | Paid ($99/year) |
| Platform | macOS |
| URL | https://www.sketchapp.com/ |
A better way to design. Design, prototype, and collaborate all in the browser—with Figma.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Figma |
| Cost | Freemium ($0-45/month) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, web |
| URL | https://www.figma.com |
Get work done with collaborative task lists, notes and video chat. Taskade is beautifully designed for remote teams.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Taskade Inc. |
| Cost | Freemium ($0-10/month) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome Extension, Firefox Addon, Web |
| URL | https://www.taskade.com |
A collaborative note-taking application that is simple, intuitive and allows you to focus on the notes rather than the process around those.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Sachin Rekhi, Ada Chen Rekhi |
| Cost | Freemium ($0-12/month) |
| Platform | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web |
| URL | https://notejoy.com |
productboard is the product management system that helps you understand what users need, prioritize what to build, and rally everyone around your roadmap.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | productboard |
| Cost | Paid (starts at $49/month) |
| Platform | Web |
| URL | https://productboard.com |
LogChimp allows you to track your customers feedback to build better products.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | LogChimp |
| Cost | Free (Open source) |
| Platform | Web |
| URL | https://logchimp.codecarrot.net |
Hellonext helps you close the user feedback loop. Comes with feedback portal, roadmap, and changelog.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Hellonext, Inc. |
| Cost | Freemium ($0-99/month) |
| Platform | Web |
| URL | https://hellonext.co |
Screeb is a product-led user research platform helping product teams to build better products by helping understand their users.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Screeb, Inc. |
| Cost | Freemium (start $0-39/month) |
| Platform | Web |
| URL | https://screeb.app |
There are a lot of folks that write great content that can help those wanting to excel and grow in the product management field to gain new perspectives. Treat the list below as an amalgamation of opinions, experiences, and patterns rather than as a definitive "list of things to always do."
- How to Deliver More Software Projects on Time - By Mark Suster.
- Shipping is a Feature: Some Guiding Principles for People That Build Things - By Michael Copeland.
- Painless Functional Specifications – Part 1: Why Bother? - By Joel Spolsky.
- Painless Functional Specifications – Part 2: What’s a Spec? - By Joel Spolsky.
- Painless Functional Specifications – Part 3: But… How? - By Joel Spolsky.
- Painless Functional Specifications – Part 4: Tips - By Joel Spolsky.
- How Am I Going To Move My Product Forward Today? - By Sachin Rekhi.
- How to Listen to Customers - By Ken Norton.
- Quality is not a tradeoff - By Julie Zhuo.
- The work is never just “the work” - By Dave Stewart.
- You Won't Regret Positive Feedback - By Zach Holman.
- A Minimum Viable Product Is Not a Product, It's a Process - By Yevgeniy Brikman.
- Being Glue - By Tanya Reilly.
- How to build great products - By Slava Akhmechet.
- If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good - By Paul Bucheit.
- Finding and Fostering Great Product Sense - By Stay SaaSy.
- Want To Build An Incredible Product? Strive For The Delta Of “Wow” - By Wayne Chang.
- The Quintessential Guide For Building An Unforgettable First-time User Experience - By Wayne Chang.
- One door at a time - By Jason Fried.
- Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager - By Ben Horowitz.
- Guide to building a product roadmap - By Hellonext, Inc.
- Guide to Career Planning - By Marc Andresssen.
- Guide to Personal Productivity - By Marc Andresssen.
- PM at Microsoft - By Steven Sinofsky.
- Hiring Your First Product Manager - By Steven Sinofsky.
- 12 Things about Product-Market Fit - By Tren Griffin.
- Relentlessly Resourceful - By Paul Graham.
- How to Be an Expert in a Changing World - By Paul Graham.
- Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule - By Paul Graham.
- Do Things that Don't Scale - By Paul Graham.
- The Time Value of Shipping - By Brandon Chu.
- Deadlines - By Brandon Chu.
- Ruthless Prioritization - By Brandon Chu.
- The Black Box of Product Management - By Brandon Chu.
- Product Management Mental Models for Everyone - By Brandon Chu.
- Understanding How The Innovator's Dilemma Affects You - By Mark Suster.
- Navigating Mid-Success - By Sam Altman.
- How to focus on what's important, not just what's urgent - By Alice Boyes.
- Speed as a habit - By Dave Girouard.
- A Comprehensive Guide To Product Design - By Nick Babich.
- Coaching Tools – The Plan - By Marty Cagan.
- The dark side of expertise - By Jake Edge.
- Remote teams - By Notion Team.
- On narratives - By Charlie Kindel.
- Virtuous Cycles, Platforms, Flywheels, Snowballs, and Tidal Waves - By Charlie Kindel.
- Is your company product-led, sales-led, or marketing-led? - By Philipp Cannons.
- So You Wanted to be a Product Manager - By Scott C. Reynolds.
- The Art of Persuasion Hasn't Changed in 2,000 Years - By Carmine Gallo.
- Mastering Effective Communication as a Product Manager - By Sachin Rekhi.
- The Top 10 Deliverables of Product Managers - By Sachin Rekhi.
- Great Product Managers are “Outcome Thinkers” - By Max Bennett.
- How to Work with Designers - By Julie Zhuo.
- Breaking into Product Management — Should you even consider it? - By Shubhi Saxena.
- Do you really understand the concept of product value? - by Hubert Palan.
- How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value - By Clint Fontanella.
- Getting to the Product Manager interview stage - By Glenn Gillen.
- Is It Possible to Work Remotely as a Product Manager? - By Roy Cobby.
- Why Product Operations is the Next Iteration in Product Management - By Christine Itwaru.
- It's Time to Fight for a Dual Product Management Career Path - By Ken Norton.
- How to Work With Software Engineers - By Ken Norton.
- The Tools Don't Matter - By Ken Norton.
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard - By Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - By Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
- The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company - By Steve Blank and Bob Dorf.
- Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers - By Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.
- Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) - By Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.
- The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - By Eric Ries.
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - By Ben Horowitz.
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany - By Steve Blank.
- The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change) - By Clayton M. Christensen.
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products - By Nir Eyal.
- The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback - By Dan Olsen.
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration - By Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace.
- Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs - By John Doerr.
- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition - By Don Norman.
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity - By Kim Scott.
- Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days - By Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz.
- Creative Selection - By Ken Kocienda.
- Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - By Marty Cagan.
- The Customer-Driven Playbook - By Jessica Rich and Travis Lowdermilk.
- Escaping The Build Trap - By Melissa Perri.
- The Manager's Path - By Camille Fournier.
- Intercom on Product Management
- An Elegant Puzzle - By Will Larson.
- The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn - By Richard W. Hamming.
- Shape Up - By Ryan Singer.
- Outcomes over Output: Why Customer Behavior Is the Key Metric for Business Success - By Joshua Seiden.
- Difficult Conversations - By Douglas Stone.
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - By Richard Rumelt.
- Crossing The Chasm - By Geoffrey A. Moore.
- EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products - By Marty Cagan, Chris Jones.
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - By Charles Duhigg.
- Staff Engineer - By Will Larson.
| Podcast | Hosts | URL | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Den Delimarsky | https://theworkitem.com | Every week, Den Delimarsky sits down with folks from a range of industries, roles, and backgrounds to learn more about their career journey, lessons learned, and what it takes to map out your own very unique track. | |
| Reid Hoffman | https://mastersofscale.com/ | How do companies grow from zero to a gazillion? Legendary Silicon Valley investor / entrepreneur Reid Hoffman tests his theories with famous founders. Guests include Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg, Netflix's Reed Hastings, Google's Eric Schmidt, Spanx's Sara Blakely. With original music and hilariously honest stories, the show sounds like nothing you've ever heard. | |
| Multiple | https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-product-podcast/id1219400787 | This is your Product Management podcast featuring PMs from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Twitter and other tech companies/ startups. Tune in if you're a manager, designer, engineer, entrepreneur or marketer who wants to learn the latest best practices. | |
| Multiple | https://www.gimletmedia.com/startup | The business origin story you never get to hear. | |
| Guy Raz | https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this | Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built. | |
| Multiple | https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-pitch | Where real entrepreneurs pitch to real investors—for real money. | |
| Multiple | https://rework.fm/ | A podcast by Basecamp about the better way to work and run your business. We bring you stories and unconventional wisdom from Basecamp's co-founders and other business owners. | |
| Multiple | https://artofproductpodcast.com/ | Chronicling the journeys of two entrepreneurs building software companies. | |
| Lenny Rachitsky | https://www.lennyspodcast.com/ | Lenny Rachitsky (author of #1 business newsletter on Substack, with 200k+ subscribers) interviews world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product. | |
| Marshall Bock, Brian Lovin | https://designdetails.fm | A weekly conversation about design process and culture. Hosted by Marshall Bock and Brian Lovin. | |
| Ryan Hoover, Abadesi Osunsade | https://www.producthunt.com/radio | Product Hunt Radio is a a weekly podcast with the people creating and exploring the future. Tune in every week with Ryan Hoover and Abadesi Osunsade as they're joined by founders, investors, journalists, and makers to discuss the latest in tech. |
- Women in Product (using Facebook)
- Product School (using Slack)
- The Product Coalition (using Slack)
- Product Collective (using Slack)
- Industry - Over 3 days, attendees will learn from renowned product leaders and share the latest methods, tools, and frameworks that they use to build, launch and scale world-class software products. Building world-class software products is hard. At INDUSTRY you will see how others manage product in different environments, from fast-paced startups to complex large enterprises.
- ProductCon - Organized by Product School, ProductCon takes place five times a year with events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London. The speaker lineup features product leaders from Google, Slack, Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, Facebook and more. You’ll learn best practices behind the most successful products, and new trends in AI, VR, IoT and Blockchain. You’ll also have the opportunity to interact with all our sponsor companies interested in recruiting PMs.
- La Product Conf - Organized by Thiga, La Product Conf (LPC) takes place once a year with events in Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain). The speaker lineup features product leaders from Pinterest, Carrefour, Payfit, Google, Meetic and more.
- Stratechery by Ben Thompson - Product and strategy insights from the industry.
- Mobbin - Hand-picked collection of mobile app design patterns.
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