Top Product Management 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 Management books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Product Management

Understanding the concepts of Product Management 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.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog. While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how diffi…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Measure What Matters: OKRs

OKRs are well-established in data-driven organizations. This book by John Doerr talks about what OKRs to use and how to implement them right to focus on the right things.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

Most people think it’s because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products. As legendary Silicon Valley coach--and coach to the founders of seve…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams

In today’s lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it’s rare to find a product leader who can steward a digital product from concept to launch without a couple of major hiccups. Why do some product leaders succeed while others don’t? This …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional Product Management Reading

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

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

How do today’s most successful tech companies―Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla―design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently than most tech companies. In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres is a guide on how to continuously validate and improve products to meet customer needs. It offers practical advice on building better user insights, problem-definition, and experiments to create successful products.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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

This book helps improve your chances of building successful products through clear, step-by-step guidance and advice. The Lean Startup movement has contributed new and valuable ideas about product development and has generated lots of excitement. However, many companies have yet to successfully adopt Lean thinking.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Product Leadership

What's better to build your understanding of product management than to build your very own product? This book walks you through how venture studios like Google Venture launch products fast and successfully.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Creativity, Inc. is a manual for anyone who strives for originality and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Building For Everyone: Expand Your Market With Design Practices From Google's Product Inclusion Team

This book makes publicly available for the first time the same inclusive design process used at Google to create user-centric award-winning and profitable products. Author and Head of Product Inclusion Annie Jean-Baptiste outlines what those practices look like in industries beyond tech with fascinating case studies.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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Augment your Product Management books

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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, …

$80 / month

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Software engineer, turned entrepreneur, turned advisor and investor. I've been a serial entrepreneur for 20+ years, currently sharing experience and guidance with driven entrepreneurs and CEO's. My mission is to help entrepreneurs start or growing their business, proving thoughtful feedback and guidance. I manage a startup incubator in Europe, supporting …

$180 / month

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Do you feel overlooked? Do you believe you could perform at a higher level if you were given the opportunity? And yet, you are surrounded by incompetent managers who have been promoted above their capabilities? Nothing frustrates me more than this situation. To think they're not seeing your potential, that …

$330 / month


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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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 …

$280 / month


Do you want to speed up your career or successfully transition to FNAAG? Do you need to define the product strategy or expand the operations? Let's work together! My Experience: I have 15 years of experience in Tech including 12 years in Google; a tenured leader with experience in running …

$150 / month

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  • "Naz is an amazing person and a wonderful mentor. She is supportive and knowledgeable with extensive practical experience. Having been a manager at Netflix, she also knows a ton about working with teams at scale. Highly recommended."

  • "Brandon has been supporting me with a software engineering job hunt and has provided amazing value with his industry knowledge, tips unique to my situation and support as I prepared for my interviews and applications."

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