Book Review: The Art of Product Management
- Falling in Love
- Organizing your Organization
- The Almost-New-New Things
- Getting into Customers’ Heads
- What Should Things Cost
You can definitely see Rich’s extensive experience with start-ups shine through the pages of this book. The entire first section talks about start-ups and things Product Managers should keep in mind when part of a start-up. Being in management, I thoroughly enjoyed the second chapter on organization. It’s amazing how many places Product Management lives. I feel fortunate to work at a company where Product Management is its own department. The third chapter discusses “new” concepts such as SaaS and Agile. Rich has some very simple, yet powerful insights into the transition into both of these worlds. In chapter four, the author gets to one of the core concepts of Product Management. How do you get into your customers’ heads and deliver solutions that solve their problems? This chapter includes some great reminders about why it is bad to stick around the office all the time. If you want to succeed in Product Management, you have to get out there and listen to your potential customers. The book concludes with a helpful chapter on pricing strategies. If you came from a technical background, like I did, this is probably not something you learned at school. Rich provides great tips for how to think about pricing and emphasizes that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
In conclusion: I wish this book had been around when I started dabbling in Product Management. If you are new to Product Management or even if you’ve been in the profession for some time, this book is a gem. Read it!
