Top Product books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Product books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Product

Understanding the concepts of Product starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

The book outlines the step-by-step process, which includes defining the problem, ideating solutions, prototyping, and conducting user testing. This framework allows teams to make significant progress in just five days. Defining the Problem: Central to the design sprint is clearly defining the problem statement.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

The Hard Thing About Hard Things has been the most recommended book to me from numerous conversations with great entrepreneurs on my podcast Growth Mindset Podcast. It’s reached the point now that if I ask for a book recommendation for business advice, I add ‘other than the obvious Hard Thing About Things’.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely discusses how we make irrational decisions in different situations. It's an eye-opening read that explores our cognitive biases, decision-making patterns, and the role of emotions in shaping our choices.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Thinking, Fast and Slow

System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the t…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Design Of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman about how design serves as the communication between object and user, and how to optimize that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

The lean startup methodology is a method of managing and building a business or startup by experimenting, testing, and iterating while developing products based on findings from your tests and feedback.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional Product Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Product, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Decode and Conquer: Answers to Product Management Interviews

Decode and Conquer is a fascinating book about how to succeed in product management interviews, especially case questions. It's essential reading for anyone trying to succeed in a competitive product management job market.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback

It walks you through how to: Determine your target customers Identify underserved customer needs Create a winning product strategy Decide on your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Design your MVP prototype Test your MVP with customers Iterate rapidly to achieve product-market fit This book was written by entrepreneur and Lean product expert Dan Olsen whose experience spans product management, UX de…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love―and that will work for your business.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Why are certain products or services so addictive while others fail? In this book, Nir Eyal explains the role of habits in successful products/services, and how you can use the 4-step Hook Model to shape customer behaviors and habits.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

Augment your Product books

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Hi, I’m Eyal — a Senior Software Engineer with a PhD from MIT, a BA from Harvard, and over a decade of experience building and scaling impactful technology in health tech, AI, and large-scale cloud systems. At Verily (Alphabet’s life sciences company), I’ve led engineering for FDA-regulated medical device platforms …

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I can help you: - Improve your resume and portfolio - Practice portfolio presentation, whiteboard challenge, app critique, behavioral interviews - Advance in your career - Improve your project work I'm a Senior Product Designer with 8 years of experience. Currently, at Klarna, Europe's Fintech unicorn. Previously, I worked at …

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Alex is an experienced professional with a track record of international consulting engagements in the UK, Switzerland, Germany and the US and holds a B.Sc. in Business Informatics and M.Sc. in International Business. He is a curious and driven personality with the innate ability to capture and release hidden potentials …

$220 / month

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Hi, I’m Brunella! With over 15 years of experience in Program and Project Management, I’ve led large-scale technology initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, delivering multiple projects with annual budgets of $40M. I've achieved reduction of operational inefficiencies in 40% and increases in revenue of 30%. My expertise spans strategic planning, …

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Hey y'all! My name is Jan and I am located in Austin, TX, originally from Northern California. I have 20+ years of experience in the tech industry where I started out as a Software Developer and have transitioned over the years to Technical Program Management and now running Product Strategy …

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I help you 1. Implement processes to deploy stress-free several times per day (without heroics) 2. Bring your team together by collaborative pairing and release planning 3. Grow highly capable, happy engineers who don't shy away from working with legacy code I coach leaders managing product engineering teams in engineering …

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