Book Recommendations

Cal Newport's Slow Productivity isn't another time management book—it's a manifesto against the productivity theater destroying strategic thinking in product organizations.

Newport's three principles feel almost subversive: do fewer things, work at a natural pace, and obsess over quality. For product leaders drowning in Slack notifications while sprinting toward burnout, this isn't just career advice—it's organizational survival strategy.

The most sophisticated strategic mind in business isn't running a Fortune 500 company—she's selling out stadiums.

"There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift" by Kevin Evers finally gives us the business analysis Swift's career deserves. As Evers notes in the preface, "Swift might not wake up with innovation on the brain, but she's instinctually and preternaturally good at doing things that HBR, business classes, and leadership coaches teach."

I've been using Swift as a case study in my strategy classes for good reason: her $2 billion Eras Tour isn't just entertainment—it's a masterclass in portfolio management, stakeholder orchestration, and long-term value creation. While most executives struggle to think beyond quarterly results, Swift has been executing a six-year strategic campaign that transformed an industry power dynamic.

If you're responsible for business or product strategy and you're not studying unconventional strategic thinkers, you're limiting your learning. Highly recommended for anyone ready to find strategic insights in unexpected places.

In a world where numbers and data are vital to telling any compelling story, this book does an excellent job of presenting a variety of different methods to help you share statistics and numerical data much more effectively. And it's packed with examples as well.

A must-read for anyone under the age of 30 *and* anyone else who doesn't feel like they've done enough to prepare for future economic security. Simple, straightforward, actionable...this is a great book.

Another Product Manager "must read" by Marty Cagan. This book tackles the principles necessary to move your company to the Product Operating Model - "about consistently creating technology-powered solutions that your customers love, yet work for your business." This is an incredibly insightful book showing the way to Product Management done right.

For most important subjects, there is one or maybe two books that rise to the top and become the "standard". For strategy, this is that book. Originally published in 2011 and reprinted several times since, this book is a must read for anyone in Product Management because to effectively articulate and define a good product strategy requires a very good understanding of what a good strategy looks like and what a bad strategy looks like. Highly recommended.

The only other role as misunderstood in today’s modern business as Product Manager, is Product Marketing Manager. This book succeeds in clearing all of that up. Similar to the other two books from Silicon Valley Product Group (both reviewed here), this book is clear, very well structured (which makes it a great reference book also), and will help anyone struggling to understand - or struggling to get others in their org to understand - the value and role of Product Marketing.

Disclaimer: I'm a HUGE Scott Galloway fan and really appreciate his wisdom, his ideas, and his overall media style. Having said that, this book is a great "picture book" (it's mostly charts) that highlights some of the most important and concerning trends in the US today.

THE book that every product manager should read early in their career...and re-read every few years or so. The second edition is significantly changed from the first edition, so if you've only read the first edition, go and read the second edition now.

A great book about how to operationalize truly continuous discovery (e.g, weekly customer interviews).

Everything you need to know about recruiting, developing, and leading successful Product Managers.

Another must-read about why empowered product teams (product manager, UX, and engineer) consistently outperform feature-based product management teams.