Top Product Management Resources to Help PMs Do More With Less

Product managers are facing a bevy of external challenges in 2022. The economic outlook is changing, the digital transformation continues, and PMs are now asked to do more with less. 

As budget and bandwidth change, it becomes increasingly important for product managers to make product and experience decisions that will have the biggest impact on their customers. 

From books to podcasts, we hope the content below is informative and helps you adapt to changing economic conditions, while making the most of your team’s resources.

Top product management books

The Lean Product Playbook

How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback

by Dan Olsen

The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. Whether you work at a startup or a large, established company, we all know that building great products is hard. This book helps improve your chances of building successful products through clear, step-by-step guidance and advice.

Buy it now.

Sprint

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

by Jake Knapp 

Entrepreneurs and leaders face big questions every day: What’s the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? Sprint is a guide to answering critical business questions like this one. This book is for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.

Buy it now.

Shape Up

Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters    

by Ryan Singer

Written by one of the founders of Basecamp, Shape Up is for product development teams who struggle to ship. If you’ve thought to yourself “Why can’t we ship like we used to?” or “I never have enough time to think about strategy,” then this book can help. You’ll learn language and techniques to define focused projects, address unknowns, and increase collaboration and engagement within your team.

Read it here.

Insightful podcasts for PMs

How to Succeed in Product Management

The Product Management Center at the University of Washington

Hosted by Jeff Shulman, Red Russak, & Soumeya Benghanem

In each episode, Jeff Shulman, Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem dive into the tools, frameworks, and thought processes that help drive success in product management. The trio regularly brings on guests from leading companies such as Google, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Zillow, and Salesforce. 

Listen on Audible or Apple Podcasts.

Customer Love Stories

Apptentive

Hosted by Robi Ganguly, CEO and Co-Founder at Apptentive

Customer Love Stories explores brand fandom—what creates fans, how businesses harness the power of fandom to drive revenue, and much more. Each episode, a different industry leader joins Robi to discuss their experience with customer love.

Listen on your preferred podcast platform.

Black Epics

Hosted by Gemma Curl

The Black Epics podcast is dedicated to putting a spotlight on successful Black product managers. The host, Gemma Curl, interviews a different Black PM each episode. They talk about the guest’s career journeys, while providing helpful advice for current or aspiring Black product managers. 

Listen on the Apple Podcasts or Spotify

The Product School 

Hosted by Carlos Gonzalez De Villaumbrosia, CEO at The Product School

Now in its 10th season, The Product Podcast discusses all things product management. They talk about everything from breaking into the industry and setting career goals, to collaborating with diverse teams and knowing when to pivot. The current season’s theme is  “women who build!” 

Listen on your preferred podcast platform.

Informative product-focused Youtube channels

Productized 

Productized hosts a three day annual conference every year that revolves around product management and product design. Their Youtube channel features full recordings of workshops from previous conferences. Workshop topics include:

• Transparency: How to Build Trust with Customers
• Building Products in Extraordinary Times

ProductLed

ProductLed provides tactical, no fluff content on how to build and grow a successful product-led business. They post a new video to their Youtube channel every week. Video topics include: 

• How to Create a Product-Led Movement in Your Company 
• How to Think Like Your Customers

Mobile-focused product management resources

As the digital transformation continues, the need for information and resources on mobile product management has dramatically risen. We’ve written a lot—and I mean A LOT—of content focused around mobile product management. Below you can find a few of our most popular guides, blogs, and webinars on the topic!

Guides

• Break Out of the Product Management Echo Chamber Using the Voice of the Customer
• 18 Product Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them 
• Four Lessons from Product Management Experts
• Six Lessons from Digital Transformation Experts

Blog posts

• What Product Management Metrics Really Matter?
• Four Key Product Management Lessons from a Product Manager at Mailchimp

Webinars

• Product Lessons from Experts at Disney, Redfin, and T-Mobile
• So, You’ve Collected Customer Feedback – Now What?

Closing thoughts

Current economic uncertainty will undoubtedly lead to tough financial decisions for your customers . In the coming months, large segments of your customer base will likely be asking themselves, “Where can we cut costs?” and “Do we still need to purchase this product or service?”

As a product manager, how do you keep your customer base together as they cut costs and you work with less resources? 

1. Commit to continuous learning by seeking out product management resources that focus on resource maximization, product prioritization, and how to put the customer first. 
2. Continuously listen to your customers, so that you are equipped with the feedback needed  to make product and experience decisions that customers care about. 

If you need assistance collecting customer feedback or acting on it, let us help! Request an Apptentive demo today.