My Learning List (or, what to do when you have the time)

Yes, this is another reading/podcast listening list. No, I’m not special in any way from the zillion other lists others are posting.

Why am I posting this? Because I care about those who are now trying to squeeze another drop of leads from Linkedin as they are scrambling to return to employment and predictable financial income. Yes- you can spend that extra hour on Linkedin. But, in the spirit of balancing yourself, and reminding yourself that you are an amazing curious person, how about educating yourself a bit? If you were employed right now you would love to read that book or listen to that podcast, except that you’d have a day job.

Let’s go.

My reading list

I’m going to start from the bottom and work my way up- in priority and topics I care about as a human and product leader.

• The math handbook- utterly useless on its own for product people. I keep it around because it grounds me, just the book on its own, not what’s inside of it. I spent a lot of time with this book through high school and college, and it reminds me of accuracy, of literacy, of being intentional and focused.
• “Indistractable”, “the one thing” combined with “The subtle art of not giving a f$$$” are great for people who want to improve focus and impact- like me, and persevering through challenging work environments. I think all three are great reads. Side note- I got very excited about Ben Horowitz “What you do is who you are”- After reading it, I recommend for you to listen to the ~20 minute podcast. I found the book a deep expansion on the topic, which seemed a bit too much for me personally. I may come back to it in the future.
• I bundle “No rules rules” and “Empowered” and “Inspired”. The former is an example of the two latter, which became two central pieces in my professional life- all about empowerment and focus. I can’t say enough about the mindset that Marty Cagan prescribes and I highly recommend it for any product manager or aspiring ones.
• “Hooked” and “Product-led growth” are also together. Personally I found the latter more inspiring and the former a bit more tactical. Product people MUST read the latter. You also want to subscribe to OpenView’s PLG blog. The entire notion of understanding users’ need and their perception of value sets the stage for the right mindset and the path to success in product.
• “Never split the difference” is an amazing book and more importantly, methodology. You might be fulled to think it’s a sales training book. It’s not. It is as essential for product people as it is to anyone else, but especially where the tool of trade in your profession is influence. It is all about reading your audience, understanding body language, advancing clarity, negotiating etc. Forcing yourself to anticipated what cannot be anticipated (“the black swan”). Highly recommended.
• “Strong product people” and “Crucial conversations” are two great books about leadership both in the profession and generally. We’ll come back to leadership later.
• “Turn the ship around” and “measure what matters” are bundled together not by mistake- it’s about leading and managing change in a difficult environment- and setting success metrics in place to know in real time that you’re doing the right thing. It’s also about being data driven and not assert your direction just based on gut feel or emotions.
• “Accelerate” and “Continuous Discovery Habits” are amazing reads. These really should be read by any professional in the software business- How to attach yourself to users and follow their lead in small, incremental experimentation cycle. The latter specifically has become my reference book, a product manager who’s not fluent on this methodology is missing out. Kudos to Teresa Torres for authoring this amazing book (and she offers courses etc.)
• “Radical Candor” is the book I am most passionate about. I care about people, a lot. And on my leadership journey I failed, a lot. I’d like to say I’ve learned from my mistakes, but the reality is, I will make more mistakes in the future. This book is all about understanding the people working for you better, what are they aspiring for; Setting the stage to deliver feedback by establishing empathy; and helping them by giving them direct, relevant, clear (sometimes painful) feedback. If you care about the people working for you, you want to read this book. By the way- the same is true for the people in your personal life, I find the mindset very applicable.

Podcasts- shorter list

• Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway- This one brings holistic view of financial and global news in a very human and understandable manner. I appreciate Scott’s broad knowledge and perspective, even more so as he dedicates episodes to address questions from his listeners.
• The Pitch- I’m experimenting with this one, but it’s essentially (edited) recording of entrepreneurs at seed stage pitching experiensed, diverse institiutional investors. The dynamic (and, of course, innovation) are fascinating. The journey of the Pitch staff is also inspiring in itself. I believe there’s also a way for the audience to participate in investments, which is also potentially interesting.
• Product thinking (Melissa Perri)- I follow Melissa because I see to recall she had strong opinions about Product OPS, a topic that’s of interest of mine in the last few years. Melissa talks and hosts about various product management topics. Although I’m not a subscriber, it looks like Marty Cagan appears in various SVPG podcasts.
• Fearless Product Leadership (Hope Gurion)- More on product, Hope is an accomplished product mentor and runs some of the Discovery Habits trainings and others. Works closely with Teresa Torres in our benefit.
• Nobody asked us with Des and Kara- This one is semi related. As a leader, you want to establish empathy and camaraderie on your team, and at the same time, you want the team members to be great individual athletes. That dynamic means that you need to understand their world really well. As a hobby runner, I followed Kara Goucher for several years and she has, no surprise, a complex life story. On this podcast she and Des are opening up on their journey, their perspectives in a very honest and vulnerable way. Being a professional athlete is anything but simple. Sometime this podcast gets geeky on terms etc., I enjoy that.

That’s it. Another day, another blog, another list. Do you have any recommendations? I’d love to hear them!

Here’s the thing: you got time? balance it. DO NOT invest all of yourself into the job search. Balance that with A (most important)- the things that fill your battery- yes- go hike with the kids, go to the gym, go punch a bag if you need to take that energy out. fill your battery. and B- Keep learning, follow (or find) your passion and sharpen yourself on the latest thinking. It will remind you of your excellence. It will insert discussion points to your interviews. It will fill your battery.