The Product Manager’s reading list

We have compiled a list of books and articles on Agile, Product, Design Thinking, and Innovation. These books and articles offer perspectives, frameworks, and real stories for the successful application of product management practices to the ideation and development of new products. If you are a Product Owner, a Product Manager, or a Product Leader, these books and articles are for you.

Books

Product Management

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love”, by Marty Cagan

The build trap“, by Melissa Perri

Deliver Great Products that Customers Love”, by Valerio Zanini

Agile

Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant-Leadership”, Geoff Watts

Scrum for Hardware“, Paolo Sammicheli

Product planning

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product”, by Jeff Patton

Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty”, by Todd Lombardo

Creativity

“Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration”, by Scott Witthoft and Scott Doorley

“inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity”, by Tina Seelig

“Creative Confidence“, by Tom & David Kelley

The Designful Company”, by Marty Neumeier

Innovation

The Art of Innovation“, by Tom Kelley

Insight Out“, by Tina Seelig

Weird Ideas That Work”, by Robert Sutton

Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days”, by Jake Knapp

“Gamestorming: A Playbook For Innovators, Rulebreakers, And Changemakers”, by Dave Gray

Design Thinking

“Change by Design“, by Tim Brown

“Design Thinking“, by Nigel Cross

This is Service Design Thinking”, by Stickdorn/Schneider

Practical Empathy”, by Indi Young

Wired to Care”, by Dev Patnaik

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage“, by Roger Martin

Validating ideas and MVPs

The Real Startup Book“, by Kromatic

“The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses”, Eric Ries

Performance

Radical Focus”, by Christina Wodke (Product Management book on applying OKRS effectively)


Articles and videos

Blogs and articles on Agile, Product, Design Thinking, Innovation for a quick read and staying up to date:

Product Management

Product Blog: https://www.producttalk.org/

Video: Product Ownership in a Nutshell (Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE

Product Owner VS Product Manager: https://medium.com/@melissaperri/product-manager-vs-product-owner-57ff829aa74d

Product Bytes (video series): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-TVksENC4R37H2EHyoyNqg/videos

Product Management practices

Using the Product Canvas to Define Your Product’s Core Requirements: https://www.ebgconsulting.com/blog/using-the-product-canvas-to-define-your-products-core-requirements/

Technical Debt: https://www.5dvision.com/post/technical-debt-is-a-silent-enemy-of-every-product-team/

Product Journey Maps for MVPs: https://www.5dvision.com/post/using-product-journey-maps-to-plan-your-product-mvp/

Dual track development (Jeff Patton): https://www.jpattonassociates.com/dual-track-development/

The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories: https://www.humanizingwork.com/the-humanizing-work-guide-to-splitting-user-stories/

Product-led Growth: https://www.productled.org/foundations/what-is-product-led-growth

Failures and anti-patterns

Large Product Backlog (anti-pattern): https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/scrum-anti-patterns-large-product-backlog

Why Startups Fail, HBR article by Tom Eisenmann: https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-start-ups-fail

If Agile fails, blame Product: https://medium.com/@vzanini/if-agile-fails-blame-product-bd875d49350c

Agile stories

Embracing Agile (HBR): https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile

Is Agile really worth it? (Forbes): https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2019/10/06/is-agile-really-worth-it-evidence-says-yes-if-you-do-these-4-things/

What is Scrum? (5D Vision): https://www.5dvision.com/post/what-is-scrum/


Frameworks

Innovation and Agile frameworks from 5D Vision: https://www.5dvision.com/agile-product-frameworks/


If you are interested in learning more about the Scrum Master role, we have a list of books and articles for Scrum Masters:

https://www.5dvision.com/post/the-scrum-masters-reading-list/

The Product Manager’s reading list
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