Newsletters

Over time newsletters have become one of the best ways for me to learn new things and stay up to date. As a result, I’ve researched over a hundred newsletters — here are five I open every time.

1. Product Managers at Work

Reading this newsletter feels like shadowing a product manager as they go about their day. Authors Alexis and Adrienne held PM positions in Facebook, Tesla, and Google, and use this newsletter to share their experience and provide practical advice. The result is content that is unique and valuable for any PM.

2. Trends.vc

Each free issue includes a short report on a developing business trend. You can learn about NFTs, communities, play-to-earn, and how they can be applied in a business. The report is easily digestible and gives you an idea of what is worth exploring further.

3. Lenny’s Newsletter

Each week Lenny answers readers’ questions, covering topics like growth, marketplaces, and the craft of product management. All answers are well-researched, and based on surveys and interviews, as well as Lenny’s unique experience as a founder and Airbnb product manager. One issue per month is free.

💡 Note: Subscription and reach stats for 2020 are public and it’s interesting to see how financially successful a niche newsletter can be.

4. Product Habits

There are a lot of curated newsletters but this one reliably has the most relevant recommendations, neatly divided into topics: product, business, marketing, growth, sales.

5. Elezea

This newsletter is targeted at product leaders at a more personal level, with useful links and book recommendations. I appreciate the personal touch and fiction recommendations.

Announcement

I’m starting a newsletter ‘Product Practice’ to help myself and other product people at the mid-stage of their careers get into the habit of learning new things and trying new techniques regularly.

Books

This year I was avoiding books specifically for product managers, and have been on the hunt for product books without the word ‘discovery’ in the title, of which I have been able to find two: ‘The Mom Test’ (research and interview) and ‘They Ask You Answer’ (content strategy). I always appreciate more recommendations so please feel free to reach out.

The Mom Test

As a PM I often have a chance to talk to users outside the context of user interviews, and if you’re in a similar situation this book can teach you how to get the most out of it.

It includes a lot of funny — and sometimes cringey — examples of bad questions and mistakes people often make when talking to customers, as well as guidelines for preparing questions, finding respondents, and sharing findings with a team.

Ideal for PMs who want to be able to ask questions on the fly and get useful results.

They Ask You Answer

A similarly simple approach as The Mom Test, but this time about content marketing. They Ask You Answer is based on the story of a pool company that became number one by answering clients’ questions and concerns on their website. I recommend in particular the first half of the book to anyone who writes or is somehow involved in the marketing and sales of a product.

Empowered

This book is less about discovery and prioritization techniques and more about coaching and creating an environment. My favorite part of the book is the framework for PM assessment.

After reading the book we tried the assessment in our product team. Each of us went through evaluation with a manager and created a plan or OKRs for ourselves. Our managers even made their evaluation public for a team to see.

I recommend this book to everyone who liked Inspired, and to all new product leaders.

Good to Great

This book is a summary of research on successful companies. It looks at what great companies have in common and how they are different from companies that didn’t reach the same level of success.

Two ideas I found the most interesting:

1. Great companies always try new things by running small experiments. The majority of them don’t amount to much but once in a while, they can uncover big new opportunities — like Amazon with AWS.
2. The initial idea, product, or problem doesn’t matter. If the company has the right group of people and discipline, they will find the right route.

The book not only describes how good companies become great but also takes an in-depth look at research methods and thinking processes.

Good Morning, Monster

Not a product book this time, but my favorite book of the year. It follows the work of a psychologist and her patients and contains not only interesting psychological studies but also insights into therapy, centered around five heartbreaking stories and different paths to recovery.

I recommend this book to everyone who likes “Maybe you should talk to someone” and everyone who wants a glimpse into how therapy works.

Podcasts

Built with Maggie Crowley

My favorite product management podcast.

I’ve never missed an episode, and am always waiting for the next episode for three reasons:

1. Maggie is a great host and each conversation is unique and full of diverse experiences. She never needs to resort to questions like “how did you become a product manager?”.
2. At the end of the show, she asks what people are reading now.
3. There’s always a lot of information relevant to B2B.

What Comes After Strategy with Benchling’s Jon Fan

This episode is about planning. How granular should the plan be? How to communicate it to clients? What are B2B specifics? I’ve listened to it when we were preparing our public communication in Ataccama. Seeing how everyone struggles with roadmaps was especially useful. No one has it figured out but everyone is looking.

How I built this

Stories of entrepreneurs with a personal touch and feel-good moments.

Tofurkey

My favorite podcast of this year. The hilarious and entertaining story of a man who was selling tempeh and lived in a treehouse, who then went on to found a Tofurkey multimillion brand and now supports other sustainable businesses.

SoulCycle

A feel-good story of two friends who wanted to create a fun and welcoming exercise facility.

Founder’s Field Guide

Sales for product people

How the CEO of Segment hired a sales advisor with a tough mentoring method.

“Peter, in this meeting, you need to ask for $120,000 contract.” And I was like, “Mitch, that is 1000 times more expensive than our public price listing. I don’t know what you’re smoking. I cannot go in and ask for a 1000x price increase.” And he’s like, “Well, then I quit as your sales advisor.”

Asana’s growth story

A story about growing a business and solving problems with scaling and performance. I listened to it when we were solving similar issues at our company and it was comforting to see successful companies going through similar stages.

Bonus: How design thinking can help people deal with death

An episode about an industry undisrupted by technology and how it caught the eye of a group of top designers.

Looking forward to reading more posts like this to see what influenced product people last year.