The Practitioner's Guide to Product Management

by Jock Busuttil

The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management is for people who want to become product managers.

Product management is the art, science and skill of bringing a successful product to life. Jock Busuttil takes you through the field of product management with candid stories and real-world experiences of what it takes to create a product that meets the customer's needs.

If you're new to product management and wondering what it's all about or if you're a product manager shooting for professional success, this book will give you the inside track on starting, developing, and then selling a new product.

5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN FROM THE BOOK

How to find balance - uncover the blend of social, commercial, and technical skills a successful product manager needs

How to read minds - learn to distinguish between what your users think they want and what they really need

How to influence stakeholders - understand the soft skills you need to influence your managers and to lead your product delivery team

How to experiment - discover how to give your products the best chance of success through continual learning

How to find time - acquire the time management skills you need to work effectively and still have a life outside work

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 6, 2015

About the author

Jock Busuttil is a freelance head of product, product management coach and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals.

In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS).

Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK.

He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly PRODUCTHEAD newsletter. You can find him on Twitter (@jockbu), Mastodon (@jock@mas.to) and LinkedIn.

Reviews

[Outdoors Nerd]

If you want to be or are Product Manager, you should read and reread this.

[Lehel]

An entertaining general introduction into the role of product management that provides the overall feel and requirements of the field without any of the specific methodologies or tools of the trade.

[Tajwar]

Does what it says… a good introductory book on Product Management. A lot of the fundamentals still resonate today.

[Xenia]

This is more of an intro guide, but it is definitely a good reference, and a good mix between practical stories and actionable insights!

[Cody Faldyn]

In his book Busuttil shares real-life stories and experiences of other companies who are successful at product management and know what it takes to meet customers’ needs. The goal of the book is to help you improve product management skills, understand what a product manager does, know the difference between good and bad products, and increase the success rate of a product. Each chapter is self-contained so if you want to read the five chapters in different orders you can.

For your convenience, I had Jock Busuttil on my podcast, The Entrepreneurs Library, to give a deep dive on The Practitioner's Guide to Product Management. With Jock’s experience he gives amazing insight on how to master the art of product management. If you would like to hear a real review from the author himself check out episode 185 on the EL website or you can find the show on iTunes.

[Svetlana]

A great reference book on product management

I found out about the book through General Assembly. As soon as I started reading it, I could not put it down. Its not like many dry text books - it includes a lot of great information on product management plus many examples as well as personal experiences of the author. His background is impressive with training as a Royal Air Force pilot and classics major who learned technology by himself during projects. Jock's tone of writing is more conversational which makes it easier to read his book and makes you feel as if you are talking to him in person.

His main question to his readers: "whichever path leads you into product management, I have one further piece of advice for you. Before accepting ant PM job offer, ask yourself the following questions:
- Doss the product excite me?
- Does the market seem intriguing?
- Do I click with people I'll be working with?"

This book is highly recommended for those interested in product management.

[Nigel Street]

Very accessible easy read with some good practical tips. The informal conversations style referencing personal experience makes for any easy read which is where this books strength really lies. If you're looking for something more like a tutorial with a structured approach to product management then you would, in my opinion need to look elsewhere however if its a good grounding in the fundamentals in an engaging style then this pretty much hits the mark.

[Riaz Rahaman]

Great book to get you started with product management

If you want to know what product management is all about and judge for your self if you are the right person for it then this is the book for you.

[Arganka Yahya]

A good read. He provides bad practices so that we will not fall for that, with some humor. If you have experience as UX designer or startup co-founder, you'll find many information is relevant. Interesting read and can be a starter guide if you want to jump into product management role.

[Raisaroo]

Easy to read. Very high level overview of Product Management. Read the conclusion today and it was one of the moments when the book hit the spot on something that happened during the day. So got a great book therapy moment :)

[Marvin Vista]

A good introduction to product management. Looking forward to more GA books!

[Petri Poikolainen]

Product management is not rocket science.

[Bart Cheever]

My pet peeve is business books that fill or don't get to the point. This book is easy and fast to read with some solid examples. Recommended.

[Ken Chew]

Depends on what’s your objective of reading the book.
3 stars for covering details and specifics
4 stars for overview, experience sharing, gaining perspectives.

[Stepan]

Very good and practical book for Product managers. Strongly recommend especially for begginers.