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Product Management

A curated list of awesome resources for product/program managers to learn and grow.

Who's a product manager?

By definition, a product manager is an individual who drives the product vision and has a deep understanding of customer needs. PMs generally are considered to be at the intersection of the business, technology and and design spaces - they are the experts in the problem space, and are able to learn and iterate quickly to deliver valuable experiences to consumers.

Tools

In day-to-day activities, product managers need to rely on tools to help them make sense of the information and insights they're handling. The list below represents some of those tools. A product manager doesn't need to use every single one of them, and neither is one better than the other. These are just pointers to some of the instruments that can be used to be effective at organizing and sharing PM expertise. None of them, standalone, will make one a better product manager.

OneNote

Efficient note-taking with superior organizational capabilities. Integrates easily with team-based workflows, where notes from the same notebook can be shared with many individuals.

OneNote

Property Value
Developer Microsoft
Cost Free
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web
URL https://onenote.com

Bear

Note-taking in Markdown format, with tag-based organizational capabilities.

Bear

Property Value
Developer Shiny Frog
Cost Freemium ($16/yr subscription available)
Platform macOS, iOS
URL https://bear.app/

Trello

Kanban-style boards to manage work items. Integrates well with teams and other services. Has a rich extensibility platform.

Property Value
Developer Atlassian
Cost Freemium ($9.99/mo+ subscriptions available)
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web
URL https://trello.com/

Taiga

Taiga is a project management tool for multi-functional agile teams. It has a rich feature set and at the same time it is very simple to start with through its intuitive user interface.

Switching zoom modes in Kanban section

Property Value
Developer Kaleidos
Cost Free (self-hosted) or Freemium
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web
URL https://tree.taiga.io

To-Do

A tool to quickly manage "to-dos".

Property Value
Developer Microsoft
Cost Free
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web
URL https://to-do.microsoft.com/

Notion

All-in-one workspace for teams and individuals.

Notion

Property Value
Developer Notion Labs
Cost Freemium ($4/mo/user individual, $8/mo/user teams)
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web
URL https://notion.so/

Balsamiq

Wireframing tool that allows building mocks without a strong focus on details. Extremely useful for situations where you don't want others to over-index on pixels and instead focus on the content.

Property Value
Developer Balsamiq Studios, LLC
Cost Paid ($89/person - permanent license)
Platform macOS, Windows, web
URL https://balsamiq.com/

Sketch

Mocking and prototyping made efficient. Offers many downloadable components that can help one create high-fidelity designs for websites, apps and other experiences.

Sketch

Property Value
Developer Bohemian B.V.
Cost Paid ($99/year)
Platform macOS
URL https://www.sketchapp.com/

Figma

A better way to design. Design, prototype, and collaborate all in the browser—with Figma.

Figma

Property Value
Developer Figma
Cost Freemium ($0-45/month)
Platform macOS, Windows, web
URL https://www.figma.com

Taskade

Get work done with collaborative task lists, notes and video chat. Taskade is beautifully designed for remote teams.

Taskade

Property Value
Developer Taskade Inc.
Cost Freemium ($0-10/month)
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome Extension, Firefox Addon, Web
URL https://www.taskade.com

Notejoy

A collaborative note-taking application that is simple, intuitive and allows you to focus on the notes rather than the process around those.

Property Value
Developer Sachin Rekhi, Ada Chen Rekhi
Cost Freemium ($0-12/month)
Platform macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web
URL https://notejoy.com

productboard

productboard is the product management system that helps you understand what users need, prioritize what to build, and rally everyone around your roadmap.

productboard

Property Value
Developer productboard
Cost Paid (starts at $49/month)
Platform Web
URL https://productboard.com

logchimp

LogChimp allows you to track your customers feedback to build better products.

logchimp

Property Value
Developer LogChimp
Cost Free (Open source)
Platform Web
URL https://logchimp.codecarrot.net

Hellonext

Hellonext helps you close the user feedback loop. Comes with feedback portal, roadmap, and changelog.

hellonext

Property Value
Developer Hellonext, Inc.
Cost Freemium ($0-99/month)
Platform Web
URL https://hellonext.co

Screeb

Screeb is a product-led user research platform helping product teams to build better products by helping understand their users.

screeb

Property Value
Developer Screeb, Inc.
Cost Freemium (start $0-39/month)
Platform Web
URL https://screeb.app

Obsidian

Obsidian is a private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think. From personal notes to journaling, knowledge bases, and project management, Obsidian gives you the tools to come up with ideas and organize them. Turn your notes into an online wiki, knowledge base, documentation, or digital garden.

Obsidian

Property Value
Developer Obsidian, Inc.
Cost Paid if used commercially ($50/user/year)
Platform iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux
URL https://obsidian.md/

Articles

There are a lot of folks that write great content that can help those wanting to excel and grow in the product management field to gain new perspectives. Treat the list below as an amalgamation of opinions, experiences, and patterns rather than as a definitive "list of things to always do."

Books

Podcasts

Podcast Hosts URL Description
The Work Item Den Delimarsky https://theworkitem.com Every week, Den Delimarsky sits down with folks from a range of industries, roles, and backgrounds to learn more about their career journey, lessons learned, and what it takes to map out your own very unique track.
Masters of Scale Reid Hoffman https://mastersofscale.com/ How do companies grow from zero to a gazillion? Legendary Silicon Valley investor / entrepreneur Reid Hoffman tests his theories with famous founders. Guests include Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg, Netflix's Reed Hastings, Google's Eric Schmidt, Spanx's Sara Blakely. With original music and hilariously honest stories, the show sounds like nothing you've ever heard.
The Product Podcast Multiple https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-product-podcast/id1219400787 This is your Product Management podcast featuring PMs from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Twitter and other tech companies/ startups. Tune in if you're a manager, designer, engineer, entrepreneur or marketer who wants to learn the latest best practices.
StartUp Multiple https://www.gimletmedia.com/startup The business origin story you never get to hear.
How I Built This Guy Raz https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.
The Pitch Multiple https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-pitch Where real entrepreneurs pitch to real investors—for real money.
ReWork Multiple https://rework.fm/ A podcast by Basecamp about the better way to work and run your business. We bring you stories and unconventional wisdom from Basecamp's co-founders and other business owners.
Art Of Product Multiple https://artofproductpodcast.com/ Chronicling the journeys of two entrepreneurs building software companies.
Lenny's Podcast Lenny Rachitsky https://www.lennyspodcast.com/ Lenny Rachitsky (author of #1 business newsletter on Substack, with 200k+ subscribers) interviews world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Design Details Marshall Bock, Brian Lovin https://designdetails.fm A weekly conversation about design process and culture. Hosted by Marshall Bock and Brian Lovin.
Product Hunt Radio Ryan Hoover, Abadesi Osunsade https://www.producthunt.com/radio Product Hunt Radio is a a weekly podcast with the people creating and exploring the future. Tune in every week with Ryan Hoover and Abadesi Osunsade as they're joined by founders, investors, journalists, and makers to discuss the latest in tech.

Communities

Conferences

  • Industry - Over 3 days, attendees will learn from renowned product leaders and share the latest methods, tools, and frameworks that they use to build, launch and scale world-class software products. Building world-class software products is hard. At INDUSTRY you will see how others manage product in different environments, from fast-paced startups to complex large enterprises.
  • ProductCon - Organized by Product School, ProductCon takes place five times a year with events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London. The speaker lineup features product leaders from Google, Slack, Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, Facebook and more. You’ll learn best practices behind the most successful products, and new trends in AI, VR, IoT and Blockchain. You’ll also have the opportunity to interact with all our sponsor companies interested in recruiting PMs.
  • La Product Conf - Organized by Thiga, La Product Conf (LPC) takes place once a year with events in Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain). The speaker lineup features product leaders from Pinterest, Carrefour, Payfit, Google, Meetic and more.

Additional resources

License

Licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 License.