Best Resources for Product Managers

Whether you’re looking to deepen your expertise, stay updated with industry trends, or find practical tools to enhance your workflow, the right resources are essential for continuous growth and success.

This guide will introduce you to the best resources available for product managers, providing you with a curated selection of valuable materials to enhance your skills and knowledge.

Let’s get started!

TL;DR

• A product manager (PM) is a professional who identifies customer needs and defines what a successful product looks like to the broader business objectives.
• The responsibilities of PMs are constantly evolving. Therefore one must stay in touch with the trending world to offer the best services. Here are some of the resources most people use to stay sharp:
  • Books: Gain a strong foundation with “Inspired” for insights from big tech giants, “Escaping the Build Trap” to focus on value, and “Start at the End” to prioritize customer needs. Dive into growth strategies with “Product-Led Growth” and learn to lead with “Leaders Eat Last.”
  • Webinars: Unlock the latest insights with Userpilot’s user acquisition and engagement webinars, explore various product management topics with Product School and Mind the Product, find upcoming and past webinars on Brighttalk, and access resources for all PM levels with the American Product Management Association.
  • Blogs & Podcasts: Stay informed with industry insights from Userpilot, SVPG, Product Talk, Product Manager HQ, and Bring the Donuts blogs. Learn from product management experts with podcasts like Marty Cagan’s, “Becoming a Truly Agile Team,” Lenny’s Podcast, the Global Product Management Podcast, and One Knight in Product.
• Product managers holistically participate in the product’s lifecycle. Thus, they need the right product management tools and specialized software for certain stages. Here are some of the tools one must not miss:
  • Best tool for product management: Userpilot – With Userpilot, PMs don’t need to look anywhere else. Benefit from engagement, feedback, and analytics features in one solution.
  • Best tool for task management and collaboration: Trello – Trello is considered the most efficient task management tool with great automation features. It allows users to add as many boards as they want.
  • Best tool for team management: Asana – Here is another task management tool that simplifies communication. It’s the perfect tool for real-time team collaboration and discussions.
  • Best tool for prioritization: Jira – Jira helps you manage tasks and projects, prioritize features and tasks, and ensure better collaboration with team members.
  • Best tool for analytics: Zoho – Do you need a tool to easily analyze and track your product’s success throughout its lifecycle? Consider Zoho.
• Looking into tools for product managers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!

What is a product manager?

A product manager (PM) is a professional who identifies customer needs and defines what a successful product looks like to the broader business objectives. The individual manages the product’s lifecycle from conception through launch and beyond – making strategic decisions to enhance its value and performance.

What does a product manager do?

They take charge of the product from conception to its launch, overseeing its development and improvement through customer experience insights.

They are tasked to conduct market and customer research, ideate products/features to release, oversee their development, and coordinate with other departments to ensure the product is launched effectively and adopted by customers.

Product manager’s main responsibilities

Product managers are pivotal in guiding the development and success of software products. Below are the primary responsibilities:

• Product strategy and vision: Define and communicate a clear product vision and strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Market research: Conduct market analysis to identify customer needs, competitive landscape, and industry trends.
• Roadmap development: Create and maintain a data product roadmap that prioritizes features and improvements.
• User feedback: Leverage user engagement tools to gather and analyze customer feedback to inform product decisions.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Work with engineering, design, marketing, and sales teams to ensure cohesive product development and launch.
• Feature specification: Write detailed specifications for new feature announcements and enhancements.
• Agile methodology: Implement agile planning best practices to manage the product development lifecycle.
• Data analytics: Monitor product performance metrics to drive continuous improvement.

Best resources for product managers

The responsibilities of PMs are constantly evolving. Therefore one must stay in touch with the trending world to offer the best services. Here are some of the resources most people use to stay sharp:

Best books for product managers

Books are one of the best places to find knowledge. Here are our top picks:

• INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan: Marty Cagan: takes you into unique approaches leading giants like Amazon and Google use in their products. This is the best resource for those interested in discovering the right products and ensuring strong adoption.
• Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri: The book delves into shifting focus from features to value, scaling product organizations, strategy, opportunity pursuit, and outcome-driven culture.
• Start at the End: How to Build Products that  Create Change by Matt Wallaert: This book tries to prevent companies from forcing products into the market and encourages them to research customer needs properly.
• Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product that Sells Itself by Wes Bush: If you want to develop a product-led growth strategy, this book is your go-to resource as Wes Bush shares PLG basics companies need to know.
• Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek: This book teaches product leaders how to put their teams first.

Best webinars for product managers

Webinars are another great resource for product managers. Here are the top webinars we recommend:

• Userpilot regularly hosts webinars on product growth and user onboarding. These webinars are a great way to learn about the latest trends and best practices in user acquisition and engagement. You can always check the event page to keep yourself updated with their newest webinars.
• Product School hosts free and paid webinars on a variety of product management topics, including everything from product strategy and user research to growth hacking and product marketing. They also have a library of on-demand webinars you can access anytime.
• Mind the Product is a popular resource for product managers, and they often host webinars on a variety of topics. You can find upcoming webinars on their website or subscribe to their email list to be notified about new webinars.
• Brighttalk offers webinars on a wide range of topics, including product management. You can find both upcoming and latest records of webinars on product management by searching for the topic on their website.
• American Product Management Association (APMA) is a professional organization for product managers. APMA offers a variety of webinars and other resources for product managers at all stages of their careers.

Best blogs for product managers

Are you looking for blogs that will increase your product management knowledge? Consider the following five blogs:

• Product management blog by Userpilot: From guides to listicles, this blog has hundreds of articles on product management in the SaaS industry.
• SVPG blog: Marty Cagan founded the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) to share his knowledge and experience with product leaders. Follow this blog and you will learn it all.
• Product Talk: Teresa Torres and her team highlight teachings from her reputable book (Product Discovery Habits) to help product teams build valuable products.
• Product Manager HQ: The Product Manager HQ blog explains essential product management concepts, offering valuable insights and practical guidance to newbie product managers.
• Bring the donuts: A well-known product professional (Ken Norton) offers the best articles in the product management realm.

Best podcasts for product managers

Here are the top podcasts for product managers:

• How to Build Tech Products that Customer Love by Marty Cagan: Listen to how Marty discusses the strengths and limitations of product companies when developing genuine products.
• Becoming a Truly Agile Team: Do you understand what ‘agile’ really means? Listen to this podcast and learn how to use the agile methodology to build a great product team.
• Lenny’s Podcast: Product managers love Lenny because he digs out everything related to product management. Follow his podcasts to learn first-hand from product leaders.
• Global Product Management Podcast: Both newbies and advanced PMs are exposed to content from large tech companies on building valuable products that customers love.
• One Knight in Product: Those involved in designing, managing, building, or marketing products will find this podcast quite useful as Jason Knight interviews product leaders.

Best tools for product managers

Product managers holistically participate in the product’s lifecycle. Thus, they need the right product management tools and specialized software for certain stages. Here are some of the tools one must not miss:

• Best tool for product management: Userpilot – With Userpilot, PMs don’t need to look anywhere else. Benefit from engagement, feedback, and analytics features in one solution.
• Best tool for task management and collaboration: Trello – Trello is considered the most efficient task management tool with great automation features. It allows users to add as many boards as they want.
• Best tool for team management: Asana – Here is another task management tool that simplifies communication. It’s the perfect tool for real-time team collaboration and discussions.
• Best tool for prioritization: Jira – Jira helps you manage tasks and projects, prioritize features and tasks, and ensure better collaboration with team members.
• Best tool for analytics: Zoho – Do you need a tool to easily analyze and track your product’s success throughout its lifecycle? Consider Zoho.

Conclusion

Professional growth is a continuous journey, and investing in your development is key to staying competitive in the field.

We hope this guide has equipped you with the tools and knowledge needed to excel in your role.

Looking into tools for product managers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!