Deep Dive: Product Management

On the final Thursday of every month our lovely newsletter subscribers will receive a topic-focused digest giving resources to help you master a subject that you can refer back to time and time again.

In this deep dive, we’re looking at Product Management.

Whether you agree with the idea of them being the ‘CEO of the Product’ or not, great product managers show leadership, influence, an understanding of how every part of a business works, just without the fancy title, comp plan and power of hire and fire.

This BoS Deep Dive helps you understand the value of good Product Management and shares some of the rules and laws of the craft, as well as some reasons why you should break them. BoS is about building great products and building great companies so product is a big part of every event we run. There’s plenty of content and we’ll cover more in a future deep dive. If there’s something you’d like to have covered, let us know.

Included in this playlist are talks from legendary authors Don Norman, Rich Mironov, and Teresa Torres who each gave brilliant talks at BoS on rules for building successful products. There is a caveat though – important and inviolable as some rules might be, you do need to know when to throw away the book. Scott Eblen (Director of Product Management, Twitter) and Whitney O’Banner (Engineering Manager, Medium) complete the playlist with some thoughts on when it’s best to abandon received product wisdom.

Get started with the BoS Playlist

Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra
Imagine you’re in a game with one objective: a bestselling product or service. The rules? No marketing budget, no PR stunts, and it must be sustainably successful. No short-term fads.
This is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill and strategy.

Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty by Bruce McCarthy
Steve Blank said about Bruce’s book: “It’s about time someone brought product roadmapping out of the dark ages of waterfall development and made it into the strategic communications tool it should be. McCarthy and team have cracked the code.”

7 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Product Management Job Marke‪t‬
Podcast: The Modern Product Manager 
With The Modern Product Manager, you’ll learn from Alex Mitchell’s insider startup perspective and get smarter each and every week on Product Management, working remotely, investing, startups, and tech

Marty Cagan: Why product management is misunderstoo‪d‬‬
Podcast: Design Better Podcast
This podcast delivers insights from the world’s most renowned design leaders. After you listen to their interview with Marty Cagan, you’ll know just where you stand, and how to become a product team leader (if you aren’t already one).

So you want to be a Product Manager
Julia Austin looks at why Product Mangers are not the CEO of product some claim they are and what should you consider if you’re thinking of pursuing a Product Management role.

How to thrive in remote product management

Megan Cook has spent over 15 years delivering software in a range of industries and currently serves as the Head of Product for Jira Software. Here she looks at the top tips to be a successful remote product manager.

Just before you go – here’s one more talk that looks at helping you Hire a Head of Product that was given at BoS Conf Online USA in September 2020

Hiring a Head of Product – Rich Mironov
Full of top tips and questions for what you should look for in your Product Manager. Rich uses a great tactic of using cute animal photos in his slides that will keep you laughing and smiling whilst learning.