Updated for 2026. There are lots of excellent books about product management and product leadership, but these are the 44 books I’d consider essential to any PM’s bookshelf.
By: Jake Knapp
Another book by the authors of Sprint, this one focusing on the Foundation Sprint: how to identify your target customer and understand their problem
TOP PICK
By: Teresa Torres
Teresa Torres is the best in the business at helping teams build products and services that their customers want. Here she shares her techniques for transforming your process into one of continuous discovery and learning.
By: Ed Catmull
If you appreciated my essay 10x Not 10%, you’ll enjoy Catmull’s book about putting 10x into practice. He draws from the success – and failures – of Pixar to teach us how to lead creative teams.
TOP PICK
Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
By: Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
The sequel to Inspired, this book explores what the best product companies have in common. “Most people think it’s because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products.”
By: Melissa Perri
Melissa Perri explains how laying the foundation for great product management can help companies solve real customer problems while achieving business goals. By understanding how to communicate and collaborate within a company structure, you can create a product culture that benefits both the business and the customer.
By: David Allen
Soon after this book was published Allen attracted an almost cult-like following. The fundamental ideas remain sound. Product managers juggle hundreds of priorities, and this book will help you balance your time.
By: Roger Fisher and William Ury
Product managers need to be master negotiators and there’s no better guide to negotiation than this classic.
TOP PICK
By: Andy Grove
This one only gets better with age. Although it’s only mentioned briefly, this is where Andy Grove first introduced OKRs to the world. His practical advice about meetings, especially the importance of 1-on-1s, inspired my own writing.
How to Work with (Almost) Anyone
By: Michael Bungay Stanier
My absolute favorite guide to getting a relationship off to a good start. MBS makes it simple to approach that initial ‘keystone conversation’ and keep any relationship healthy and vibrant.
By: Al Ries and Jack Trout
The classic marketing book, one of the first to specifically address positioning your product in a consumer’s mind.
TOP PICK
By: Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson and Nate Walkingshaw
From my foreword: “Your guide to navigating product leadership, the one I never had. Within these pages you’ll hear a diversity of opinions from the industry’s most successful and respected product leaders, insights that will help you lead your team and deliver exceptional products.”
By: Jake Knapp
From my former partners in GV Design—how to cut through the crap, identify a problem, and test it in only one week.
By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with his opponents, gradually turning them into admirers and influential advisors. Lincoln’s approach to leadership offers lessons for anyone looking to tap into the wisdom of others, with or without formal authority.
TOP PICK
By: Clayton Christensen
The most important business and product management book of the past fifty years. If you’re a technology PM and you haven’t read Christensen, do so right now.
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TOP PICK
By: Frederick Brooks
If you could only read one computer science book, this would be it. Almost fifty years old, it’s as relevant as ever. I promise you’ll nod your head as Brooks skewers mistakes that engineering leaders continue to make to this day.
By: Daniel Kahneman
When does our animal brain make decisions for us before our more analytical brain has a chance to think through the consequences? From Nobel laureate Kahneman, this is one of the most important psychology books ever written.
Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model
By: Marty Cagan, Lea Hickman, Chris Jones, Christian Idiodi, John Moore
The third book in Cagan’s trilogy, this one focuses on how companies can transform their cultures from project- to product-oriented. This book is probably less useful for the individual contributor, but it offers hope for anyone trapped in a feature team that something better is possible. Buy it for your boss or CEO.
By: Laszlo Bock
Laszlo and his team at Google reinvented the role of human resources. This book is a terrific overview of what makes Google Google, from culture, to hiring, to making decisions.
![[Photo of a bookshelf]]](https://www.bringthedonuts.com/generated/img/books/product-management-bookshelf-800-291581dd0.jpg)
These product manager books link to Amazon.com and Bookshop.org through their affiliate programs. I donate all proceeds to charity and also match the donation on a two-for-one basis.
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How to Hire a Product Manager: the Classic Essay
The classic essay that defined the product manager role
What is product management? What makes a great product manager, and how do you become one? This is Ken Norton's classic essay on the role of product management that launched thousands of PM careers.
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10x Not 10%: Bold Product Strategy and Vision
Product management by orders of magnitude
In this ambitious essay, Ken Norton looks at the history of innovation and challenges product managers and product leaders to think bigger, to aim for 10x, not 10%.
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Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable: Jazz and PMs
What product managers can learn from jazz musicians
What can product managers and product leaders learn from jazz, an art form that is all about improvisation, collaboration, and being willing to take risks?
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Go deep, move fast, and build multi-decade abstractions
What is Stripe's product culture like? Interview with a Stripe product leader demonstrate an embrace of going deep, moving fast, and maintaining a multi-decade perspective.
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It’s Time to Fight for a Dual Product Management Career Path
Companies should embrace multitrack job ladders for product managers who prefer product leadership to people management
Companies should embrace multitrack job ladders for product managers who prefer product leadership to people management. A concrete proposal with sample career track is included.
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Ants & Aliens: Long-Term Product Vision & Strategy
Why you need a thirty-year product vision (yes, thirty)
How do you plan for the future and deliver an innovative and compelling product vision that will inspire your team to deliver winning products?
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Making the shift from reactive to creative leadership
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Why are product managers so obsessed with frameworks and tools?
What are the best product management tools? Do tools really matter? In this provocative piece, Ken Norton argues that they probably don’t.
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The Drama Triangle – The Roles We Play in Conflict
What it is and how to use it
Living in The Drama Triangle, like anything we do from a reactive mindset, is costly: It’s ineffective over the long term, exhausting, demotivating, and endlessly limiting. Yet, accordingly to some estimates, 90% of people spend 90% of their time operating from this place.
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