At it’s heart, building software product is a simple thing. Yes, the technical concepts required to build great software are incredibly complicated, and prolific and capable engineers are worth every penny they make because of it. In most cases, though, building great product is about more than just being capable of putting technical skill into practice. Not every great engineer has a successful product to their name.

Product Managers are the steering wheel to the engine of engineering. Powerful engineering teams can get a product moving fast and far, but a Ferrari without steering can easily end up in a lot of places you might not want it.

For those of you who are thinking about how you can get into the business of building great software, I beg you not listen to me too much. Rather, allow me to share the words of the titans upon which my industry stands —

User Story Mapping, by Jeff Patton

This book outlines the way that stories can be written and organize in a way that can optimize development for the delivery of user value. It advocates thinking of a product as a set of user actions, and then considering the development tasks necessary to attain that end. Jeff Patton is one of the core thinkers when it comes to traditional Agile development, and while many modern development shops don’t build product exactly in the way described in this book, it does inform the basis of how product management as a practice has advanced to where it is today.

The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries

Don’t let the name fool you, this book is not just for garage-bound startups. It advocates the process of using the scientific method to develop product that allows you to learn about what your customers want, starting with super low-tech prototyping and working your way up. Developing iteratively is something I’ve found to be incredibly difficult to put into practice, but incredibly valuable the more it can be done.

The Past and Future of Product Management, by Matt LeMay

This short article (~20 minute read), is a great thought piece on the state of product management, and how one might avoid some of the less obvious, yet very common pitfalls that many fall into regarding the role of a product manager. It talks about the distinction between data- and customer-driven product drivers, and the role of a product manager being a supportive role, rather than any sort of leadership role.

Sprint, by Google Ventures

The Google Ventures Design Sprint is a beautiful way to think about initial product design. The design sprint is a 5 day process for getting from idea to initial requirements through a lot of white boarding, post-it notes, low-fidelity wire framing, and user testing. It’s a lot of the stuff that product managers use all the time, packaged in a way so simple as to almost be romantic. It’s an elegant way to put product design into practice in a way that also promotes iterative thinking.

Zero to One, by Peter Thiel

This one’s a legend. Regardless of what you may think of Peter Thiel, he is one of the founding minds behind Silicon Valley as it exists today. His book, Zero to One, explores the nature of innovation, and talks about the benefits of 0 to 1 innovations — building things that are completely new to this world, rather than 1 to n improvements.

The Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss

The title sounds a little strange, I’ll grant you, but The Four Hour Work Week is a great book to help reframe your mindset to be more entrepreneurial. The book proposes a way to spend less time working and more time enjoying life by virtue of optimizing workflows. As a product expert, you’ll quickly realize that there’s always more to do than there is time to do it, and it’s surprisingly easy to fall into the habits that don’t result in productivity. This book has helped me answer questions I didn’t know to ask — “Is this meeting necessary?” “Can I automate this process somehow?” “Do I need to check email every day?”

Thanks for reading! I’m Jack Moore. If you’re interested in seeing a full list of my book recommendations — check out www.jackmoore.us/books

Disclaimer — book titles link to my Amazon referral account