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RESOURCES

 

If you're just starting out your product management career you might find these resources useful. They played a large part in helping me learn the skills of the job.

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INSPIRED: HOW TO CREATE PRODUCTS CUSTOMERS LOVE

by Marty Cagan

I read this book right at the beginning of my career. It covers everything you need to understand your new job description. I still refer to it.

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ESCAPING THE BUILD TRAP

Book by Melissa Perri

Melissa takes an organisation wide view of how product management can have the biggest impact. It helped me figure out where my blind spots where as I transitioned from individual contributor to product leader.
Through examples, it paints a clear picture of what a product lead organisation can look like.

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PRAGMATIC INSTITUTE

Training for Product Managers and Marketeers

Formerly known as Pragmatic Marketing, the Pragmatic Institute provides classroom training wildly recognised in the industry. I did the Foundations, Build and Focus modules after about 2 years on the job. I still use their templates, particularly the positioning document.

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PRODUCTTANK

Free Product Management Meet Up

This Meet Up features high quality content on a regular basis. It's a great way to meet fellow product managers and learn from their war stories. There's local groups is most major cities.

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MIND THE PRODUCT

Annual Product Management Conference

Mind the Product is the biggest gathering of product managers that I know of. It's a great conference to keep aware of the trends in the industry and meet other product managers. I attend the London one, but it's spread to other cities too.

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JAM

Product Management and Design Conference

Jam is relaxed product and design conference where speakers share frank stories of what it's like to build products. It happens every year in London, but also Barcelona. I gave a talk there in 2019, so it holds a special place in my heart.

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PRODUCTCAMP

Free Product Management Unconference

Unconferences are events during which any of the attendees can present or propose a topic for discussion. You just have to turn up on the day and add yourself to the schedule, or just attend the sessions. It's a great place to practice your public speaking and learn from your peers.

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WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A PRODUCT MANAGER?

Blog Post by Martin Eriksson

This blog post from 2011 still rings true today. It also is where the venn diagram which is now the Mind the Product logo comes from.

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JOBS TO BE DONE

Framework Popularised by Clayton Christensen

Instead of asking what the customer wants, ask what jobs they are trying to get done. Useful way to think about problems rather than solutions.

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KANO MODEL

Theory for product development by Professor Kano

This framework helps you plot different needs or features to find basic needs and delighters.

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FILLING WHITE SPACE

Blog Post by Daniel Schmidt

Interesting concept which explains how product managers fill the space left by other functions in the cross functional team. I find it's crucial in the early stages, but as teams grow it's important to not be tempted to take on other people's roles.

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SHIT UMBRELLA

Concept credited to Todd Jackson

This is a concept that I consider key to the role. You protect the team from shit so they can focus. You also take the heat if things go wrong, and give credit to your team when things go right.

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